TOWARD CLASSIFICATION OF PARTICLE PROPERTIES USING LIGHT-SCATTERING TECHNIQUES

The success of the semiconductor industry's quest for contamination-fr ee manufacturing depends heavily on the continued evolution of wafer s canners and other analytical instruments. The ability to characterize (rather than simply detect) a contaminant particle on a surface using light scattering techniques would be utilized by future instruments. T he research described in this article provides a fundamental knowledge base necessary for particle characterization using laser-based light scattering. An algorithm to provide some discrimination of both partic le size and composition was developed and demonstrated.