Fluid leakage detection for a millisecond anneal system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10359334-B2
Application number	US-201615377217-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 13, 2016
Priority date	Dec 30, 2015
Publication date	Jul 23, 2019
Grant date	Jul 23, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods for detecting a fluid leak associated with fluid cooled components in a millisecond anneal system are provided. In one example implementation, a millisecond anneal system can include a processing chamber having one or more fluid cooled components. The system can include a gas flow system configured to provide for the flow of process gas in the processing chamber. The system can include a vapor sensor configured to measure vapor in process gas flowing through the gas flow system for detecting a fluid leak associated with the one or more fluid cooled components.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A thermal processing system, comprising:
a processing chamber comprising one or more fluid cooled components;
a gas flow system configured to provide for a flow of process gas in the processing chamber and configured to exhaust the process gas from the processing chamber; and
a humidity sensor configured to measure humidity in the process gas flowing downstream of an at least one exhaust vent opening configured to exhaust the process gas from the processing chamber in the gas flow system for detecting a fluid leak associated with the one or more fluid cooled components.

2. The thermal processing system of claim 1 , wherein the processing chamber comprises a wafer plane plate dividing the processing chamber into a top chamber and a bottom chamber, the at least one exhaust vent opening being located in the bottom chamber.

3. The thermal processing system of claim 1 , wherein the gas flow system comprises a downstream line coupled to the at least one exhaust vent opening.

4. The thermal processing system of claim 3 , wherein the humidity sensor is configured to measure humidity in the process gas flowing in the downstream line.

5. The thermal processing system of claim 3 , wherein the humidity sensor is configured to measure humidity in the process gas flowing in a bypass line coupled to the downstream line.

6. The thermal processing system of claim 5 , wherein the gas flow system comprises a valve configured to control the flow of gas into the bypass line.

7. The thermal processing system of claim 1 , wherein the system further comprises at least one processor circuit, the processor circuit configured to:
obtain signals from the humidity sensor indicative of the humidity in the process gas flowing through the gas flow system; and
detect the fluid leak associated with the one or more fluid cooled components based at least in part on the signals from the humidity sensor.

8. The thermal processing system of claim 7 , wherein the processor circuit is configured to detect the fluid leak associated with the one or more fluid cooled components at least in part by comparing the amount of humidity in the process gas flowing through the gas flow system to a threshold and detecting the fluid leak when the amount of humidity in the process gas exceeds the threshold.

9. The thermal processing system of claim 7 , wherein the processor circuit is configured to provide an indicator associated with the fluid leak.

10. The thermal processing system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more fluid cooled components comprise a wafer plane plate.

11. The thermal processing system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more fluid cooled components comprise a reflective mirror.

12. The thermal processing system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more fluid cooled components comprise a water window.

13. A method for detecting a fluid leak in a millisecond anneal system, the method comprising:
obtaining, by one or more processor circuits, one or more signals from a humidity sensor configured to measure humidity in process gas flowing downstream of an at least one exhaust vent opening configured to exhaust the process gas from a processing chamber in a gas flow system, the gas flow system configured to provide for the flow of the process gas in the processing chamber having one or more fluid cooled components, the gas flow system further configured to exhaust the process gas from the processing chamber; and
detecting, by the one or more processor circuits, a fluid leak associated with the one or more fluid cooled components in the processing chamber based at least in part on the one or more signals from the humidity sensor.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein detecting, by the one or more processors circuits, a fluid leak associated with the one or more fluid cooled components in the processing chamber comprises:
comparing, by the one or more processor circuits, the humidity in the process gas to a threshold; and
detecting, by the one or more processor circuits, the fluid leak when the humidity in the process gas exceeds the threshold.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises providing, by the one or more processor circuits, an indicator associated with the fluid leak.

16. A millisecond anneal system, comprising:
a processing chamber having a wafer plane plate dividing the processing chamber into a top chamber and a bottom chamber, the processing chamber having one or more reflective mirrors;
a gas flow system configured to provide for the flow of process gas in the processing chamber, the gas flow system comprising at least one vent opening in the top chamber for providing the process gas to the processing chamber and at least one exhaust vent opening in the bottom chamber for exhausting the process gas from the processing chamber, the gas flow system further comprising a downstream line coupled to the at least one exhaust vent opening;
a fluid cooling system configured to circulate fluid through one or more of the wafer plane plate and the one or more reflective mirrors; and
a humidity sensor configured to measure humidity in the process gas flowing downstream of the at least one exhaust vent opening for detecting a leak associated with the fluid cooling system.

17. The millisecond anneal system of claim 16 , wherein the system further comprises a processor circuit, the processor circuit configured to perform operations, the operations comprising:
obtaining signals from the humidity sensor indicative of the humidity in the process gas flowing through the downstream line; and
detecting the leak associated with the fluid cooling system based at least in part on the signals from the humidity sensor.

Assignees

• Mattson Tech Inc

Inventors

• Mueller Manuel
• Hezler Dieter

Classifications

• H10P72/0616

  Monitoring of warpages, curvatures, damages, defects or the like · CPC title

• H10P72/0462

  characterised by the construction of the processing chambers, e.g. modular processing chambers · CPC title

• G01M3/20 Primary

  using special tracer materials, e.g. dye, fluorescent material, radioactive material · CPC title

• G01N33/0036

  specially adapted to detect a particular component (physical analysis of gaseous biological material G01N33/497) · CPC title

• H01L21/67288

  Electricity · mapped topic