THIN-FILM MONITORING WITH ELLIPSOMETRY IN IN-LINE PROCESSING EQUIPMENT

An ellipsometer for in-line monitoring has been developed. The construction is simple and it determines both the refractive index and thickness of a film in about 5 seconds through a simple and fast calculation method. The ellipsometer was set under an unloading chamber of in-line processing equipment and the optical alignment was adjusted with a simple method. For examination, SiN(x) films have been monitored. The results have been that the measurement was precise and the in-line monitoring of the film was successively performed.