Importance

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Abstract

Apparatus and methods for measuring the sheet resistance of an electrically conductive film on a semiconductor substrate while maintaining the substrate within the vacuum environment of the semiconductor process apparatus. In one aspect of the invention, the conductive film is deposited on the substrate within a vacuum chamber, and the resistance probe is located within the same chamber. The probe retracts out of the way during deposition of the film, and then moves to the substrate to measure the resistance of the film after deposition is paused or completed. In a second aspect of the invention, the probe is located in a chamber other than the chamber which deposits the conductive film. The chamber housing the probe can be the 'transfer chamber' which houses the substrate transfer robot used to carry substrates from one process chamber to another, or it can be a cooling chamber which cools the substrate after the film is deposited so that the sheet resistance measurement can be performed at a desired lower temperature. If the probe is located in the transfer chamber, the probe can measure the substrate while it is in the transfer chamber in the course of being transferred from one process chamber to another.

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First Claim