Granted Patent B2

US 12,322,616 · App. 18/435,796 · Granted Jun 3, 2025

Inventor: Youngjin Choi (San Jose, CA)

Assignee: JNK TECH

H01L21/67201H01L21/67742H01L21/681

Abstract

Claims (42)

1. A substrate inspection system comprising:

a film deposition apparatus comprising:

a load lock chamber configured to receive and clamp a substrate, the load lock chamber comprising one or more viewport windows disposed to pass through a wall of the load lock chamber,

a deposition chamber configured to deposit a film over the substrate to output a film-deposited substrate,

a transfer robot configured to move the substrate and the film-deposited substrate between the load lock chamber and the deposition chamber, and

one or more cameras coupled to an exterior portion of the one or more viewport windows of the load lock chamber and configured to capture at least one image of the substrate and/or the film-deposited substrate, disposed inside the load lock chamber, through the one or more viewport windows;

a loading-unloading robot configured to load the substrate from an outside of the load lock chamber to an inside of the load lock chamber to place the substrate in the load lock chamber;

the transfer robot configured to move the substrate from the load lock chamber to the deposition chamber;

the deposition chamber configured to deposit a film over the substrate in the deposition chamber to output the film-deposited substrate;

the transfer robot configured to move the film-deposited substrate from the deposition chamber to the load lock chamber to place the film-deposited substrate in the load lock chamber;

the one or more cameras configured to capture at least one image of one or more portions of the film-deposited substrate such that the film is included in the at least one image, after the film-deposited substrate is placed in the load lock chamber;

the loading-unloading robot configured to unload the film-deposited substrate from the load lock chamber;

at least one controller configured to analyze the at least one image to determine whether a film deposited over the film-deposited substrate has a defect; and

a display configured to display the at least one image and analysis results,

wherein the at least one controller is further configured to:

obtain contrast values of pixels in the at least one image; and

process the contrast values to determine whether the film has a defect or an error,

wherein the at least one controller is further configured to:

determine at least one of components in the deposition chamber related to the defect of the film, and

wherein the analysis results being displayed on the display comprise information on the at least one component related to the defect.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more portions of the film-deposited substrate comprise one or more of corners, sides, or portions other than the corners or sides.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller is further configured to:

process the contrast values to detect at least one of a substrate edge line of the substrate or a film edge line of the film-deposited substrate; and

determine a distance between the substrate edge line and the film edge line is greater than a predetermined value to determine whether the film has a defect.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller is further configured to:

define a target area in the pixels of the at least one image;

process the contrast values of the pixels in the target area to count the number of pixels having the contrast values; and

determine the counted number of the pixels is greater than a predetermined value to determine whether the film has a defect.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller is further configured to:

define a target area in the pixels of the at least one image;

process the contrast values of the pixels in the target area to divide the pixels into a first group of pixels having the contrast values greater than a predetermined value and a second group of pixels having the contrast values smaller than the predetermined value; and

determine whether a ratio of the first group of pixels to the second group of pixels is smaller than a threshold to determine whether the film has a defect.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller is further configured to:

define a target area in the pixels of the at least one image;

process the contrast values of the pixels in the target area to define a width of an edge of the film; and

determine whether the width of the edge of the film is greater than a threshold to determine whether the film has a defect.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller is further configured to:

process the contrast values to detect a substrate edge line of the substrate;

determine a shift of the substrate edge line from a predetermined location is greater than a predetermined value; and

determine that the substrate is erroneously placed.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more cameras is located at an edge of the load lock chamber, and wherein the at least one of the one or more cameras is configured to capture the at least one image after the film-deposited substrate is placed in the load lock chamber and before the film-deposited substrate moves from the load lock chamber to the outside of the load lock chamber.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more cameras are located at one or more corners of the load lock chamber.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (6)

References Cited (60)