Methods and systems for permitting thickness control of the selective epitaxial growth (SEG) layer in a
semiconductor manufacturing process, for example raised source / drain applications in
CMOS technologies, are presented. These methods and systems provide the capability to measure the thickness of an SEG film in-situ utilizing optical
ellipsometry equipment during or after SEG layer growth, prior to removing the
wafer from the SEG growth tool. Optical
ellipsometry equipment can be integrated into the SEG platform and
control software, thus providing automated
process control (APC) capability for SEG thickness. The integration of the
ellipsometry equipment may be varied, dependent upon the needs of the fabrication facility, e.g., integration to provide ellipsometer monitoring of a
single process tool, or multiple tool monitoring, among other configurations.