Abstract: Charging damage to integrated circuits during ion implantation and plasma processing of integrated circuit die in a semiconductor wafer is reduced by processing scribe lanes during wafer fabrication to facilitate the flow of current to and from the wafer substrate through the scribe lanes during integrated circuit fabrication and reduce current flow through integrated circuit components.

Abstract: The current density versus voltage characteristics of integrated circuit processing equipment such as a plasma etcher are determined using a passive probe including a semiconductor wafer in which one or more clusters of individual passive charge monitors are fabricated. Each monitor includes an EEPROM device having a control electrode and a floating electrode over a channel region connecting source and drain regions, a charge collecting electrode connected to the control electrode, and a current sensing resistor connecting the charge collection electrode to the substrate for developing a threshold varying voltage. By determining changes in device threshold voltage, a corresponding surface-substrate potential is determined which can be divided by the value of the current-sensing resistor to yield a current. The current can then be divided by the area of the charge collecting electrode to yield a value of the current density.

Abstract: A unipolar charge monitoring device for use in characterizing semiconductor fabrication equipment and processes includes a semiconductor substrate of one conductivity type, a source region and a drain region formed in first and second spaced surface regions of opposite conductivity type in the substrate with a channel region between the source region and the drain region, a control gate spaced from and in alignment with the channel region, a floating gate between and spaced from said control gate and the channel region, a charge collection electrode above and electrically connected to the control electrode, and a diode connecting the charge collection electrode to the substrate whereby the charge collection electrode collects charge of only one potential. In one embodiment, the unipolar charge monitoring device further includes a conductive electrode spaced from the charge collecting electrode and ohmically connected to the substrate for monitoring surface charge dissipation.