Semiconductor wafer having an edge based identification feature
View Patent ↗A semiconductor wafer comprises a wafer formed of a semiconductor material having a peripheral edge portion and a repeating mark on the edge portion of the wafer to allow identification of the wafer. Also described is a method of identifying and tracking these semiconductor wafers.
1. A method of identifying and tracking semiconductor wafers comprising:
inscribing a repeating pattern of marks on the peripheral edge portion of each of a plurality of semiconductor wafers, each repetition of the pattern of marks on each wafer embodying predetermined information identifying the wafer;
loading a plurality of the inscribed wafers into a container in the form of a front opening unified pod; and
scanning the marks on the wafers with a reader capable of reading the information from the marks on the wafers where in the repeating pattern of marks is disposed on the peripheral edge so that identification of the wafer is determinable from any portion of the peripheral edge substantially no longer than a length of but one repetition of the pattern of marks.
2. An identification method according to claim 1 wherein said marks are bar codes and said reader is a bar code reader.
3. An identification method according to claim 2 wherein said bar code is a 2-D barcode.
4. An identification method according to claim 1 wherein said marks are alphanumeric symbols.
5. An identification method according to claim 1 further comprising providing said pod with an opaque door covering said front opening.
6. A semiconductor wafer comprising a wafer formed of a semiconductor material, the wafer having a peripheral edge portion and repeating marks throughout the edge portion of the wafer, each mark having a predetermined pattern adapted to allow identification of the wafer, wherein the repeating predetermined pattern of the repeating marks is disposed on the edge portion so that identification of the wafer, from the predetermined pattern, is determinable from scanning any portion of the periphery substantially no longer than a length of but one of the predetermined pattern.
7. A semiconductor wafer according to claim 6 , wherein said marks are bar codes capable of being read optically.
8. A semiconductor wafer according to claim 7 , wherein said bar code is a 2-D bar code.
9. A semiconductor wafer according to claim 6 , wherein said marks are alphanumeric codes capable of being read visibly.
10. A semiconductor wafer according to claim 6 , wherein said marks are a combination of bar codes and alphanumeric symbols.
11. The semiconductor wafer according to claim 6 , wherein the identification mark includes a visibly recognizable indication.
12. The semiconductor wafer according to claim 11 , wherein the identification mark includes a numeral and/or a mark.
13. The semiconductor wafer according to claim 6 , wherein the identification mark includes an optically recognizable mark.
14. The semiconductor wafer according to claim 13 , wherein the optically recognizable mark includes a bar code.
15. The semiconductor wafer according to claim 6 , wherein the identification mark includes identification mark recognizable by a laser beam.
16. The semiconductor wafer according to claim 15 , wherein the identification mark recognizable by a laser beam includes a bar code.