Andrew S Barada Deceased87 Juniper Rd, New Canaan, CT 06840

7169016, Jan 30, 2007

Jan 25, 2006

11/275715

Andrew H. Barada - Portola Valley CA, US
Takehiko Ueda - Kanagawa-ken, JP

Nikon Corporation

B24B 49/12

451 6, 451 5

Methods and apparatus for substantially continuously measuring the surface of a wafer during a polishing process are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, an apparatus includes a wafer support table that supports a wafer, a polishing pad that polishes a surface of the wafer, and a polishing pad structure that rotates the polishing pad over the surface of the wafer. The apparatus also includes a measuring device which is capable of continuously measuring the surface of the wafer during polishing of the surface of the wafer.

2007027, Nov 22, 2007

May 18, 2006

11/419056

Andrew Barada - Portola Valley CA, US

NIKON PRECISION INC. - Belmont CA

B24B 51/00
B24B 29/00

451005000, 451285000

Methods and apparatus for controlling a material removal rate at an edge of a wafer during a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a CMP apparatus includes a wafer, a polishing pad to polish a surface of the wafer, a polishing pad structure to rotate the polishing pad over the surface of the wafer, and a wafer chuck to support the wafer. The wafer chuck directly supports a first portion of the wafer that is in physical contact with the wafer chuck and indirectly supports a second portion of the wafer that is not in physical contact with the wafer chuck. The second portion of the wafer is supported by the wafer chuck using a bearing surface arranged between the second portion of the wafer and the wafer chuck.

4953388, Sep 4, 1990

Jan 25, 1989

7/301088

Andrew H. Barada - New Canaan CT

The Perkin-Elmer Corporation - Norwalk CT

G01B 1312

73 375

A pneumatic bridge air gauge sensor. A measurement leg and a reference leg are used to measure a gap between a measurement probe and a surface. The two legs are initially balanced resulting in no air flow therebetween. A mass air flow sensor coupled between the two legs detects the mass air flow between the two legs resulting from a change in the gap distance from the balanced state.

5346601, Sep 13, 1994

May 11, 1993

8/060315

Andrew Barada - New Canaan CT
Steven D. Hurwitt - Park Ridge NJ

C23C 1434

20419215

A sputter coating apparatus particularly useful for applying sputtered films, particularly reactively produced sputtered films such as titanium nitride, onto semiconductor wafers, is provided with a collimator that includes a grid of vanes for restricting the paths available for the sputtered material to take from the target toward the wafer. A flow of fresh reactive gas is maintained on the surface of the wafer by gas outlets carried by vanes of the collimator. The outlets are supplied with the gas through passages provided in the vanes, so that the gas supply does not contribute to the shadowing of the sputtered material from the wafer except in accordance with the intended shadowing for which the collimator is provided.

2016003, Feb 4, 2016

Jul 24, 2015

14/809054

- Milpitas CA, US
Andrew J. Hazelton - San Carlos CA, US
Andrew H. Barada - Portola Valley CA, US
Todd M. Petit - Livermore CA, US
Chuan Sheng Tu - Zhubei City, TW

G01N 21/47
G01N 21/01

An integrated metrology module includes a chuck for holding a sample and positioning the sample with respect to an optical metrology device, a reference chip for the optical metrology device, the reference chip being movable to various positions with respect to the optical metrology device, and a reference chip purge device provides a flow of purge gas or air over the reference chip while the reference chip is in the various positions. The reference chip purge device may be static or movable with the reference chip.