Claims
- 1. An apparatus for evaluating a semiconductor wafer comprising:
an optical inspection system including at least one or more of the type selected from the group consisting of a spectrophotometer, a spectroscopic ellipsometer and a narrow band ellipsometer; and a cleaning system operatively coupled to the optical inspection system, said cleaning system including at least or more of the modalities selected from the group consisting of microwave excitation, radiant heating, conductive heating and optical radiation, said cleaning system functioning to reduce contaminants on the wafer so that the analysis of the wafer by the optical inspection system can be more accurate.
- 2. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the optical inspection system and the cleaning system are located in adjacent but separate modules.
- 3. An apparatus as recited in claim 2, further including a wafer transport module coupled to the cleaning module and the optical inspection module which operates to transport a wafer cleaned by the cleaning module to the optical inspection module.
- 4. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the optical inspection system and the cleaning system are located in the same chamber.
- 5. An apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein the optical radiation used for the cleaning system is defined by UV radiation.
- 6. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the optical radiation used for the cleaning system is defined by UV radiation.
- 7. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the cleaning system includes a conductive heat source.
PRIORITY
[0001] This Application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/294,869, filed Apr. 20, 1999, which claimed the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/102,167, filed Sep. 28, 1998, said application being incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60102167 |
Sep 1998 |
US |
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09294869 |
Apr 1999 |
US |
Child |
10717316 |
Nov 2003 |
US |