Granted Patent B2

US 12,663,456 · App. 18/829,028 · Granted Jun 23, 2026

Inventors: Yue Guo (Redwood City, CA); Yang Yang (San Diego, CA); Kartik Ramaswamy (San Jose, CA); Fernando Silveira (Santa Clara, CA); A N M Wasekul Azad (Santa Clara, CA)

Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.

G01R29/0885

Abstract

Claims (51)

1 . An instrumented substrate comprising:

a body having a top surface and a bottom surface, the body sized to be moveable by a robot in through a slit valve door of a plasma processing system;

an array of electro-optic sensors positioned on the top surface of the body, the array of electro-optic sensors comprising:

at least one electro-optic sensor, comprising:

a package comprising a body;

a first electro-optic crystal disposed within the body; and

at least one optical fiber configured to:

transmit electromagnetic energy transmitted from a first light source to a surface of the first electro-optic crystal; and

transmit at least a portion of the electromagnetic energy that was transmitted to the surface of the first electro-optic crystal and subsequently passed through at least a portion of the first electro-optic crystal to a first light sensor, wherein the first light sensor is configured to generate a signal that varies based on an attribute of the portion of the electromagnetic energy received by the first light sensor from the at least one optical fiber.

2 . The instrumented substrate of claim 1 wherein the array of electro-optic sensors are aligned, oriented and distributed across the top surface of the instrumented substrate.

3 . The instrumented substrate of claim 2 wherein the array of electro-optic sensors detect an amount of generated electric field E in each of a plurality of areas of the top surface of the instrumented substrate.

4 . The instrumented substrate of claim 3 wherein the array of electro-optic sensors detect the amount of a plasma non-uniformity and/or skew in a density of a plasma formed over different areas of the plurality of areas of the top surface of the instrumented substrate.

5 . The instrumented substrate of claim 1 wherein the array of electro-optic sensors includes at least five sensing elements.

6 . The instrumented substrate of claim 1 wherein can be silicon wafer, oxide wafer, or other types, with or without a cover layer, made of ceramics or low outgassing plastics.

7 . The instrumented substrate of claim 1 further comprising:

supporting sleeves having associated optical fibers connected to the electro-optic sensors, the supporting sleeves configured to transfer optical signals passing between portions of the optical fiber that are inside and outside of the plasma processing system.

8 . A process chamber comprising:

a chamber body;

a lid disposed on the chamber body, wherein the lid and chamber body enclose a processing volume;

a slit valve door disposed through the chamber body, the slit valve door operable between an open and closed position;

a substrate support assembly positioned within the processing volume, the substrate support assembly having a body, the body having a substrate supporting surface disposed at a center and having a substrate electrode embedded therein for applying a substrate voltage to a substrate;

an instrumented substrate comprising:

a body having a top surface and a bottom surface, the body sized to be moveable by a robot in through the slit valve door of a plasma processing system

an array of electro-optic sensors positioned on the top surface of the body, the array of electro-optic sensors comprising:

at least one electro-optic sensor, comprising:

a package comprising a body;

a first electro-optic crystal disposed within the body; and

at least one optical fiber configured to:

transmit electromagnetic energy transmitted from a first light source to a surface of the first electro-optic crystal; and

transmit at least a portion of the electromagnetic energy that was transmitted to the surface of the first electro-optic crystal and subsequently passed through at least a portion of the first electro-optic crystal to a first light sensor, wherein the first light sensor is configured to generate a signal that varies based on an attribute of the portion of the electromagnetic energy received by the first light sensor from the at least one optical fiber.

9 . The process chamber of claim 8 further comprising:

supporting sleeves having associated optical fibers connected to electro-optic sensors, the supporting sleeves configured to transfer optical signals passing between portions of the optical fiber that are inside and outside of the processing chamber.

10 . The process chamber of claim 8 further comprising:

a vacuum compatible connector disposed through the body, the vacuum compatible connector configured to transfer optical signals passing between portions of the optical fiber that are inside and outside of the processing chamber.

11 . The process chamber of claim 8 wherein the array of electro-optic sensors are aligned, oriented and distributed across the top surface of the instrumented substrate.

12 . The process chamber of claim 11 wherein the array of electro-optic sensors detect an amount of generated electric field E in each of a plurality of areas of the top surface of the instrumented substrate.

13 . The process chamber of claim 12 wherein the array of electro-optic sensors detect the amount of a plasma non-uniformity and/or skew in a density of a plasma formed over different areas of the plurality of areas of the top surface of the instrumented substrate.

14 . The process chamber of claim 8 wherein the array of electro-optic sensors includes at least five sensing elements.

15 . The process chamber of claim 8 wherein can be silicon wafer, oxide wafer, or other types, with or without a cover layer, made of ceramics or low outgassing plastics.

16 . A method of performing an electric field measurement using an electric field measurement system, comprising:

loading an instrumented substrate by a robot onto a substrate support in a plasma processing system;

measuring, by use of a plurality of electro-optic sensors disposed on the instrumented substrate, an electric field generated by the plasma processing system;

transmitting, by use of a first light source, the measurement of electromagnetic energy through the an optical fiber to a controller; and

generating, by the controller, a command signal based on the measurement of the electromagnetic energy, wherein generating the command signal based on a generated first measurement signal further comprises:

altering a setting of a processing parameter based the measurement of the electromagnetic energy.

17 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising:

monitoring and analyzing a change in a sensing parameter detected by one or more sensors in the plurality of electro-optic sensors.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the controller compares data received from the one or more electro-optic sensors of the plurality of electro-optic sensors with information stored in a memory of the controller to determine a desired amount of correction that is needed to compensate for a drift in a sensed parameter experienced by the one or more electro-optic sensors.

19 . The method of claim 18 , further comprising:

determining by the controller an amount of adjustment to a processing parameter by a difference in the electric field detected by a first fiber optic sensor and a second fiber optic sensor of the plurality of electro-optical sensors.

20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the controller uses the determined amount of adjustment to generate a command signal comprising adjusting one or more processing parameters to correct for a variation in temperature.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (400)