US 12,125,730 B2
Apparatus and methods for determining wafer characters
Wei-Da Kang, Hsin-Chu (TW); and Wen-Ting Tsai, Taipei (TW)
Assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Hsin-Chu (TW)
Filed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Hsin-Chu (TW)
Filed on May 10, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/740,816.
Application 17/740,816 is a division of application No. 17/208,850, filed on Mar. 22, 2021, granted, now 11,380,570.
Application 17/208,850 is a division of application No. 16/118,239, filed on Aug. 30, 2018, granted, now 10,957,571.
Prior Publication US 2022/0270905 A1, Aug. 25, 2022
Int. Cl. H01L 21/68 (2006.01); H01L 21/677 (2006.01); H01L 23/544 (2006.01); H05K 13/08 (2006.01)
CPC H01L 21/681 (2013.01) [H01L 21/67736 (2013.01); H01L 21/67778 (2013.01); H01L 23/544 (2013.01); H05K 13/0812 (2018.08); H01L 2223/54426 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method, comprising:
loading, by a load port of a processing tool, a semiconductor wafer into the processing tool to process the semiconductor wafer;
scanning the semiconductor wafer using an optical character recognition (OCR) device to read an optical character disposed on the semiconductor wafer in real-time as the semiconductor wafer is being turned by an orientator before the semiconductor wafer is processed in the processing tool, wherein the OCR device is located at the load port of the processing tool to scan the semiconductor wafer before the wafer is placed into a chamber of the processing tool for processing; and
determining whether the optical character matches a predetermined character corresponding to the semiconductor wafer based on the optical character read.