ELECTROCHEMICAL SAMPLING HEAD OR ARRAY OF SAME
A sampling head, and/or an array including same for use in electrochemical deposition of various metal(s) on wafers or other substrates suitable for use in microelectronic devices or components thereof.
1 . A sampling head comprising:
(a) a sensor;
(b) data processing electronics; and
(c) a communications module.
2 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sensor includes a microelectrode having an electrode diameter of at least about 5 μm or from about 5 μm to about 200 μm.
3 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sensor includes a microelectrode adapted for making galvanostatic measurements in a liquid bath.
4 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sensor is one member of an array of a plurality of sensors.
5 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sensor is reusable.
6 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sensor is not reusable.
7 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sampling head does not require calibration.
8 . The sampling head of claim 1 , further comprising software.
9 . The sampling head of claim 4 , wherein said array of said plurality of sensors comprises sensors that are addressed in parallel or serial format or both.
10 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sampling head has an effective useful life of at least about 1,000 wafers.
11 . The sampling head of claim 10 , wherein said sampling head has said effective useful life of at least about 10,000 wafers.
12 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sensor is made by microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) or by microelectronic patterning techniques or both.
13 . The sampling head of claim 4 further comprising an array of multiplexed reference electrodes.
14 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sampling head is encapsulated.
15 . The sampling head of claim 1 further comprising an electrocapillary.
16 . The sampling head of claim 1 further comprising multi-variate analysis software.
17 . The sampling head of claim 1 further comprising data storage electronics.
18 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said communications module is adapted for transmitting or receiving analog communications, digital communications, fiber-optic communications, wireless communications or a combination thereof.
19 . The sampling head of claim 1 adapted for communicating with a central processing unit.
20 . The sampling head of claim 4 , wherein said plurality of sensors are adapted for communicating with a central processing unit.
21 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sampling head is one member of an array of a plurality of sampling heads.
22 . The sampling head of claim 21 , wherein said plurality of sampling heads are adapted for communicating with a central processing unit.
23 . The sampling head of claim 21 , wherein said central processing unit communicates with a plurality of arrays of sampling heads.
24 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sensor is adapted for partial or complete immersion in a plating bath.
25 . The sampling head of claim 24 , wherein said plating bath comprises an electrochemical deposition (ECD) plating bath, or an electroless plating bath.
26 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sensor is suitable for partial or complete immersion in a cleaning solution.
27 . The sampling head of claim 1 disposed in a wafer processing bath, in a recirculation tank, in a material reservoir, at an exit drain of said wafer processing bath, or in plumbing of said bath, said tank or said reservoir.
28 . The sampling head of claim 22 , wherein said central processing unit is adapted for communicating with a wafer processing tool controller, or a central semi-conductor factory controller.
29 . The sampling head of claim 4 , wherein sensors in said array of said plurality of sensors that are operated in a parallel or serial sensing mode, or both.
30 . The sampling head of claim 1 , wherein said sampling head contains self-test or auto-calibration routines.
31 . A method for processing a substrate, selected from the processes of electroplating a substrate and wet processing a semiconductor wafer, comprising utilizing the sample head of claim 1 .
32 . (canceled)
33 . An apparatus comprising the sample head of claim 1 .
34 . An electrochemical deposition plating system: comprising an electrochemical plating bath; an electrochemical deposition sampling head including at least one sensor and data processing electronics; a communication's module; a central processing unit; and an electrochemical deposition controller.