US Patent Application 18356084. WAFER PROCESSING METHOD simplified abstract

WAFER PROCESSING METHOD

Organization Name

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Inventor(s)

Yan-Hong Liu of Hsinchu County (TW)

Daniel M.Y. Yang of Hsinchu City (TW)

Che-Fu Chen of Taipei City (TW)

WAFER PROCESSING METHOD - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 18356084 titled 'WAFER PROCESSING METHOD

Simplified Explanation

The patent application describes a method for etching a wafer to remove a material from it and then performing reflectance measurements to determine if the material has been completely removed.

• The method involves transferring the wafer from a factory interface to a load lock chamber and then to a buffer chamber.
• The wafer is then transferred to a process chamber where it is etched to remove the material.
• After the etching process, reflectance measurements are performed on the wafer in various chambers to determine if the material has been completely removed.
• The reflectance measurements can be done in the factory interface, load lock chamber, buffer chamber, or a combination of these chambers.
• The reflectance of the wafer is used as an indicator to identify if the material has been entirely removed.

Original Abstract Submitted

A method includes: transferring a wafer from a factory interface through a load lock chamber to a buffer chamber; transferring the wafer from the buffer chamber to a process chamber; etching the wafer in the process chamber, to remove a material of the wafer; and after the wafer is etched, performing reflectance measurements to the wafer in the factory interface, the load lock chamber, the buffer chamber, or combination thereof, to identify if the material of the wafer is removed entirely according to a reflectance of the wafer.