Patent ID: 11921025
Assignee: NIKON CORPORATION
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A slurry analysis system for estimating one or more characteristics of a slurry that includes a plurality of particles suspended in a dispersion medium, the slurry analysis system comprising:
a slurry filter that filters the slurry; and
a control system that (i) estimates a first characteristic of the slurry using a flow rate of a filtrate through the filter and a slurry filtration pressure of the slurry, wherein the first characteristic is a cake particle packing fraction of the slurry; and (ii) estimates a second characteristic of the slurry using a hypothetical model of random close packing, the second characteristic of the slurry being a particle agglomerate diameter; wherein the control system estimates the second characteristic of the slurry also using the cake particle packing fraction;
wherein the control system estimates the particle agglomerate diameter of the slurry using the following formula:, D
   aggl
  
  =
  
   
    
     
      
       ∅
       RCP
       2
      
      
       
        (
        
         1
         -
         
          ∅
          RCP
         
        
        )
       
       3
      
     
     
      
       ∅
       C
       2
      
      
       
        (
        
         1
         -
         
          ∅
          C
         
        
        )
       
       3
      
     
    
   
   ⁢
   
    D
    part
   
  
 

wherein (i) Daggi is the particle agglomerate diameter of the slurry; (ii) ØRCP is a random close packing cake particle packing fraction; (iii) Dpart is a nominal particle size of the particles; and (iv) Øc is the cake particle packing fraction of the slurry.