Patent ID: 7052575

Claim:
A system for monitoring and regulating an etch process, comprising: at least one etching component that etches at least one portion of a wafer; an etch component driving system that drives the at least one etching component; a system that directs light onto one or more gratings located on at least one portion of the wafer; an etch monitoring system that measures one or more etching parameters from light reflected from the one or more gratings; and a processor operatively coupled to the etch monitoring system and the etch component driving system, the processor receives etching parameter data from the measuring system and analyzes the etching parameter data by comparing the etching parameter data to stored etching data to generate a feed-forward control data operative to control the at least one etching component, the processor further logically maps the wafer into one or more grid blocks and makes a determination of acceptability of etching values in the one or more grid blocks.