US 2,005,063,451 · Filed 2003-02-24
The Mirror System That Measures Heat More Accurately Than Human Eyes
Imagine trying to measure how hot something is just by looking at it, but the surface is shiny or dull and throws off your reading. This patent uses a special multi-layered mirror system to capture heat rays in a way that gives you the true temperature, no matter what the surface looks like.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a temperature measurement system that uses a specially designed reflecting member made of multiple thin layers of heat-reflecting materials positioned opposite the object being measured. What's protected here is the specific arrangement of these layers—each pair differs in how much they bend light by 1.1 or more—along with the heat ray extraction pathway that lets thermal energy through to the detector. The innovation is the combination of these layered materials working together to measure temperature accurately regardless of how reflective or absorptive the object's surface is.
Why it matters
Accurate temperature measurement is critical in semiconductor manufacturing, where even small errors can ruin wafers worth thousands of dollars. This system solves a fundamental problem: traditional radiation thermometers are fooled by surface properties. By using engineered reflective layers, Shin-Etsu's invention provides more reliable readings in high-temperature industrial processes, making manufacturing more consistent and reducing costly defects.
Real-world use
When semiconductor factories heat silicon wafers during production, technicians use systems like this to ensure the wafer reaches exactly the right temperature without guessing based on how shiny the surface looks.
Original USPTO abstract
Oppositely of a temperature measuring surface of an object-to-be-measured 16 , a reflecting member 28 is disposed while being spaced by a reflection gap 35 from the temperature measuring surface. The reflecting member 28 is composed of a heat ray reflecting material capable of reflecting heat ray in a specific wavelength band, in a portion including a reflection surface 35 a . A heat ray extraction pathway section 30 is disposed through the reflecting member 28 so that one end thereof faces the temperature measuring surface. Heat ray extracted through the heat ray extraction pathway section from the reflection gap is detected by a temperature detection section 34 . The heat ray reflecting material is configured in a form of a stack comprising a plurality of element reflecting layers composed of a material having transparent properties to the heat ray, in which every adjacent two element reflecting layers are composed of a combination of materials having refractive indices which differ from each other by 1.1 or more. This makes the measurement be hardly affected by radiation ratio of the object-to-be-measured when temperature of the object-to-be-measured is measured by a radiation thermometer, enables to measure its temperature more correctly irrespective of the surface state thereof, and can simplify configuration of a measurement system.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 2,005,063,451
- Filing date
- 2003-02-24
- Grant date
- Application — not yet granted
- Assignee
- Shin-Etsu Handotai Co., Ltd
- Inventor(s)
- ABE TAKAO, IMAI MASAYUKI
- CPC class
- G01J5/08
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