CONTACTLESS CAPACITIVE MEASUREMENT TOOL WITH IMPROVED THROUGHPUT AND ACCURACY

Abstract: systems and methods are provided herein for determining the planarity of a semiconductor wafer. the systems and methods described herein utilize a capacitive measurement tool to detect and characterize the bow of a semiconductor wafer. the capacitive measurement tool disclosed herein utilizes a non-contact, capacitive sensor unit to measure wafer bow. unlike conventional capacitive sensing techniques used to measure wafer bow, the capacitive sensor unit disclosed herein uses a plurality of electrodes for simultaneously obtaining a plurality of capacitance measurements from the wafer at various locations on the wafer surface. by including a plurality of electrodes within the capacitive sensor unit, the techniques described herein increase the amount of data collected across the wafer surface at any given time to improve the throughput and measurement accuracy of the capacitive measurement tool.

Inventor(s): Daniel Fulford, Mark I. Gardner, Henry Jim Fulford

CPC Classification: G01B7/28 (MEASURING LENGTH, THICKNESS OR SIMILAR LINEAR DIMENSIONS; MEASURING ANGLES; MEASURING AREAS; MEASURING IRREGULARITIES OF SURFACES OR CONTOURS)

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