Patent ID: 11929270
Assignee: nan
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC H  C  G | IPC C  G  H

Claim 19:
20. A monitoring device for monitoring a fabrication process in a fabrication system, the fabrication system comprising a process chamber and a plurality of flow components including an exhaust line or a supply line, and the monitoring device comprising:
a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor for monitoring the exhaust line or the supply line of the plurality of flow components of the fabrication system and configured for exposure to a process chemistry in the exhaust line or the supply line during the fabrication process, the QCM sensor comprising a material layer, the material layer being accumulated in situ on the QCM sensor during the fabrication process; and
a controller for:
measuring resonance frequency shifts of the QCM sensor due to interactions between the QCM sensor and the process chemistry including a precursor gas in the exhaust line or the supply line during the fabrication process for depositing the material of the precursor gas on wafers; and
determining a parameter of the fabrication process in the process chamber as a function of the measured resonance frequency shifts of the QCM sensor within the exhaust line or the supply line, wherein the exhaust line or the supply line during the fabrication process comprises an unconsumed portion of the precursor gas in the process chamber, and a mass of the QCM sensor changes due to the unconsumed portion of the precursor gas interacting with the material layer of the QCM sensor, and the controller determines the parameter of the fabrication process in the process chamber due to the measured resonance frequency shifts of the QCM sensor indicating the changing mass of the QCM sensor;
wherein the fabrication process comprises accumulating a material layer on a substrate, wherein the material layer on the substrate is the same material as the material layer of the QCM sensor.