Applied Materials Patent Grants

Digital holography for alignment in layer deposition

Granted: December 10, 2024
Patent Number: 12163783
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) deposition system has a workpiece transport system configured to position a workpiece within the OLED deposition system under vacuum conditions, a deposition chamber configured to deposit a first layer of organic material onto the workpiece, a metrology system having one or more sensors measure of the workpiece after deposition in the deposition chamber, and a control system to control a deposition of the layer of organic material onto the…

Substrate enclosure system with assembly for charging a validation wafer

Granted: December 10, 2024
Patent Number: 12166366
A system includes an enclosure configured to couple to an equipment front end module (EFEM) of a substrate processing system, a charging assembly, and one or more support structures within the enclosure. The one or more support structures are configured to support a validation wafer in a charging position to charge the validation wafer via the charging assembly.

Substrate processing monitoring

Granted: December 10, 2024
Patent Number: 12165934
A method for processing a substrate within a processing chamber comprises receiving a first radiation signal corresponding to a film on a target element disposed within the processing chamber, analyzing the first radiation signal, and controlling the processing of the substrate based on the analyzed first radiation signal. The processing chamber includes a substrate support configured to support the substrate within a processing volume and a controller coupled to a first sensing device…

Apparatus for rotating substrates

Granted: December 10, 2024
Patent Number: 12165907
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to apparatus for substrate processing, and more specifically to apparatus for rotating substrates and to uses thereof. In an embodiment, an apparatus for rotating a substrate is provided. The apparatus includes a levitatable rotor comprising a plurality of magnets embedded therein, a plurality of gas bearings positioned to levitate the levitatable rotor, and a stator magnetically coupled to the levitatable rotor, the stator for…

Process kit enclosure system

Granted: December 10, 2024
Patent Number: 12165905
A process kit enclosure system includes surfaces to enclose an interior volume, a first support structure including first fins, a second support structure including second fins, and a front interface to interface the process kit enclosure system with a load port of a wafer processing system. The first and second fins are sized and spaced to hold process kit ring carriers and process kit rings in the interior volume. Each of the process kit rings is secured to one of the process kit ring…

Bipolar electrostatic chuck for etch chamber

Granted: December 10, 2024
Patent Number: 12165899
Embodiments of bipolar electrostatic chucks are provided herein. In some embodiments, a bipolar electrostatic chuck includes a ceramic plate; a plurality of electrodes disposed in the ceramic plate, wherein the plurality of electrodes include one or more positive electrodes arranged in a first pattern and one or more negative electrodes arranged in a second pattern; an aluminum base plate coupled to the ceramic plate; a positive conduit extending through the aluminum base plate and…

Methods for etching a material layer for semiconductor applications

Granted: December 10, 2024
Patent Number: 12165877
An apparatus and method for etching a material layer with a cyclic etching and deposition process. The method for etching a material layer on a substrate includes: (a) etching at least a portion of a material layer (302) on a substrate (101) in an etch chamber (100) to form an open feature (360) having a bottom surface (312) and sidewalls in the material layer (302); (b) forming a protection layer (314) on the sidewalls and the bottom surface (312) of the open feature (360) from a…

Fleetwide impedance tuning performance optimization

Granted: December 10, 2024
Patent Number: 12165843
Embodiments disclosed herein include a method for field adjusting calibrating factors of a plurality of RF impedance matches for control of a plurality of plasma chambers. In an embodiment, the method comprises collecting and storing in a memory data from operation of the plurality of RF impedance matches, and finding a tune space for each of the plurality of RF impedance matches from the collected data. In an embodiment, the method further comprises finding adjustments to account for…

Optical resolution measurement method for optical devices

Granted: December 10, 2024
Patent Number: 12165341
Embodiments herein provide for a method of determining an optical device modulation transfer function (MTF). The method described herein includes projecting a baseline image of a pattern from a light engine to a detector. The baseline image is analyzed to determine a baseline function. A baseline fast Fourier transform (FFT) or a baseline MTF of the baseline function is obtained. The method further includes projecting an image of the pattern from the light engine to one or more optical…

Capacitive sensor housing for chamber condition monitoring

Granted: December 10, 2024
Patent Number: 12163911
Embodiments disclosed herein include a sensor assembly. In an embodiment, the sensor assembly comprises a sensor module and a housing assembly. In an embodiment, the sensor module comprises a substrate, a capacitor with a first electrode and a second electrode on the substrate, and a capacitive-to-digital converter (CDC) electrically coupled to the first electrode and the second electrode. In an embodiment, the housing assembly is attached to the sensor module and comprises a shaft,…

Multi zone spot heating in EPI

Granted: December 10, 2024
Patent Number: 12163229
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to apparatus and methods for semiconductor processing, more particularly, to a thermal process chamber. The thermal process chamber includes a substrate support, a first plurality of heating elements disposed over or below the substrate support, and a spot heating module disposed over the substrate support. The spot heating module is utilized to provide local heating of cold regions on a substrate disposed on the substrate support…

Continuous liner for use in a processing chamber

Granted: December 10, 2024
Patent Number: 12163218
A processing chamber includes a chamber body defining an interior volume and including an access port. A cathode assembly is configured to generate a plasma within the interior volume. A chamber liner includes one or more inner notch structures to engage with one or more components of the chamber body. The chamber liner is configured to move between a loading position and an operation position. When the chamber liner is in the loading position, the interior volume is accessible by the…

Sputter target for a physical vapor deposition chamber

Granted: December 3, 2024
Patent Number: D1053230

Algorithm for accurately converting a wide range of photo signals into an electrical current

Granted: December 3, 2024
Patent Number: 12160243
Embodiments disclosed herein include a method of calibrating a tool for converting photonic signals to electrical signals. In an embodiment, the method comprises connecting a calibration module to a calibrated current source, finding a transfer function for a plurality of modes with the calibration module, and storing the transfer functions in a lookup table.

Dynamic multi zone flow control for a processing system

Granted: December 3, 2024
Patent Number: 12159785
In one example, a process chamber comprises a lid assembly, a first gas supply, second gas supply, a chamber body, and a substrate support. The lid assembly comprises a gas box, a gas conduit passing through the gas box, a blocker plate, and a showerhead. The gas box comprises a gas distribution plenum, and a distribution plate comprising a plurality of holes aligned with the gas distribution plenum. The blocker plate is coupled to the gas box forming a first plenum. The showerhead is…

Ultraviolet and ozone clean system

Granted: December 3, 2024
Patent Number: 12159782
A cleaning apparatus for cleaning a substrate includes a lamp for emitting ultraviolet radiation in an irradiation region; a housing that houses the lamp; a water deflector spaced below the housing, the water deflector having a water inlet for receiving a supply of ozonated water and a water outlet for discharging ozonated water irradiated by the lamp into a substrate processing region beneath the water deflector, and defining a water flow path between the water inlet and the water…

Die system and method of comparing alignment vectors

Granted: December 3, 2024
Patent Number: 12159392
Embodiments of the present disclosure include a die system and a method of comparing alignment vectors. The die system includes a plurality of dies arranged in a desired pattern. An alignment vector, such as a die vector, can be determined from edge features of the die. The alignment vectors can be compared to other dies or die patterns in the same system. A method of comparing dies and die patterns includes comparing die vectors and/or pattern vectors. The comparison between alignment…

Process recipe creation and matching using feature models

Granted: December 3, 2024
Patent Number: 12158735
A method includes determining, by a processing device, whether a first process recipe including a set of Pareto efficient parameters is to be selected from a set of process recipes, wherein the set of Pareto efficient parameters fail to satisfy each target property of a set of target properties for processing the component, in response to determining that a first process recipe is not to be selected from a set of process recipes for processing the component, selecting, by the processing…

Method for manufacturing optical device structures

Granted: December 3, 2024
Patent Number: 12158605
Embodiments described herein provide for methods of forming optical device structures. The methods utilize rotation of a substrate, to have the optical device structures formed thereon, and tunability of etch rates of a patterned resist disposed over the substrate and one of a device layer or the substrate to form the optical device structures without multiple lithographic patterning steps and angled etch steps.

Methods of selective deposition

Granted: December 3, 2024
Patent Number: 12157943
Methods for selective deposition are described herein. Further, methods for improving selectivity comprising an ammonia plasma pre-clean process are also described. In some embodiments, a silyl amine is used to selectively form a surfactant layer on a dielectric surface. A ruthenium film may then be selectively deposited on a conductive surface. In some embodiments, the ammonia plasma removes oxide contaminations from conductive surfaces without adversely affecting the dielectric…