Floating wafer chuck
Granted: September 25, 2018
Patent Number:
10083852
Edge grippers are disposed around an outer edge of a chuck. Each of the edge grippers includes a finger configured to pivot around a point; a contact pad configured to contact the wafer; and a flexure disposed between the contact pad and the finger. The flexure is configured to flex toward and away from the chuck. The chuck can use a matrix of vacuum and pressure nozzles designed to keep a wafer floating above the chuck. The edge grippers can hold the wafer at the edge while minimizing…
Defect marking for semiconductor wafer inspection
Granted: September 25, 2018
Patent Number:
10082470
Methods and systems for accurately locating buried defects previously detected by an inspection system are described herein. A physical mark is made on the surface of a wafer near a buried defect detected by an inspection system. In addition, the inspection system accurately measures the distance between the detected defect and the physical mark in at least two dimensions. The wafer, an indication of the nominal location of the mark, and an indication of the distance between the detected…
Reducing registration and design vicinity induced noise for intra-die inspection
Granted: September 11, 2018
Patent Number:
10074167
Noise induced by pattern-of-interest (POI) image registration and POI vicinity design patterns in intra-die inspection is reduced. POI are grouped into alignment groups by co-occurrence of proximate registration targets. The alignment groups are registered using the co-occurrence of proximate registration targets. Registration by voting is performed, which can measure a degree that each of the patterns-of-interest is an outlier. POI are grouped into at least one vicinity group with same…
Critical dimension uniformity enhancement techniques and apparatus
Granted: September 11, 2018
Patent Number:
10074036
Disclosed are methods and apparatus for inspecting a photolithographic reticle. Modeled images of a plurality of target features of the reticle are obtained based on a design database for fabricating the reticle. An inspection tool is used to obtain a plurality of actual images of the target features of the reticle. The modelled and actual images are binned into a plurality of bins based on image properties of the modelled and actual images, and at least some of the image properties are…
Methods and systems for spectroscopic beam profile metrology having a first two dimensional detector to detect collected light transmitted by a first wavelength dispersive element
Granted: September 11, 2018
Patent Number:
10072921
A spectroscopic beam profile metrology system simultaneously detects measurement signals over a large wavelength range and a large range of angles of incidence (AOI). In one aspect, a multiple wavelength illumination beam is reshaped to a narrow line shaped beam of light before projection onto a specimen by a high numerical aperture objective. After interaction with the specimen, the collected light is passes through a wavelength dispersive element that projects the range of AOIs along…
Digital pattern generator having charge drain coating
Granted: September 11, 2018
Patent Number:
10072334
A digital pattern generator has a MEMS substrate with a plurality of doping layers and a plurality of insulating layers between respective doping layers. A plurality of lenslets are formed as holes through the substrate. A charge drain coating is applied to the inner surfaces of the lenslets. The charge drain coating drains electrons that come into contact with the charge drain coating so that the performance of the digital pattern generator will not be hindered by electron charge…
Aware system, method and computer program product for detecting overlay-related defects in multi-patterned fabricated devices
Granted: September 4, 2018
Patent Number:
10068323
A design aware system, method, and computer program product are provided for detecting overlay-related defects in multi-patterned fabricated devices. In use, a design of a multi-patterned fabricated device is received by a computer system. Then, the computer system automatically determines from the design one or more areas of the design that are prone to causing overlay errors. Further, an indication of the determined one or more areas is output by the computer system to an inspection…
Methods and apparatus for speckle suppression in laser dark-field systems
Granted: September 4, 2018
Patent Number:
10067072
A system for detecting defects on a semiconductor sample includes an illumination module for directing a nonzero-order Gaussian illumination beam towards a plurality of locations on a sample and a collection module for detecting light scattered from the sample in response to the nonzero-order Gaussian illumination beams and generating a plurality of output images or signals for each location on the sample. The system further comprises a processor system for detecting defects by (i)…
Compressive sensing for metrology
Granted: August 28, 2018
Patent Number:
10062157
Disclosed are apparatus and methods for determining a structure or process parameter value of a target of interest on a semiconductor wafer. A plurality of collection patterns are defined for a spatial light beam controller positioned at a pupil image plane of a metrology tool. For each collection pattern, a signal is collected from a sensor of the metrology tool, and each collected signal represents a combination of a plurality of signals that the spatial light beam controller samples,…
Determining multi-patterning step overlay error
Granted: August 28, 2018
Patent Number:
10062543
Methods and systems for determining overlay error between different patterned features of a design printed on a wafer in a multi-patterning step process are provided. For multi-patterning step designs, the design for a first patterning step is used as a reference and designs for each of the remaining patterning steps are synthetically shifted until the synthetically shifted designs have the best global alignment with the entire image based on global image-to-design alignment. The final…
Method and system for detecting defects on a substrate
Granted: August 28, 2018
Patent Number:
10062156
An inspection method includes receiving a plurality of inspection images of a substrate. The method includes generating a first noise image from a first image from the first channel and an additional noise image from the additional image from the additional channel. The method further includes generating a first signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) image from the first noise image and an additional SNR image from the additional noise image and identifying one or more first pixel candidates in the…
Finding patterns in a design based on the patterns and their surroundings
Granted: August 28, 2018
Patent Number:
10062012
Methods and systems for finding patterns in a design for a specimen are provided. One system includes one or more computer subsystems configured for searching for a target pattern in a design for a specimen to thereby find multiple instances of the target pattern in the design. The one or more computer subsystems are also configured for separating the multiple instances of the target pattern into different groups based on information for surrounding patterns within a predefined window…
Interleaved acousto-optical device scanning for suppression of optical crosstalk
Granted: August 28, 2018
Patent Number:
10060884
A method of scanning a sample includes simultaneously forming a plurality of co-linear scans. Each scan is formed by a sweep of a spot by an acousto-optical device (AOD). The co-linear scans are separated by a predetermined spacing. A first plurality of swaths are formed by repeating the simultaneous forming of the plurality of co-linear scans in a direction perpendicular to the co-linear scans. The first plurality of swaths have an inter-swath spacing that is the same as the…
Method and system for edge-of-wafer inspection and review
Granted: August 21, 2018
Patent Number:
10056224
An electron-optical system for inspecting or reviewing an edge portion of a sample includes an electron beam source configured to generate one or more electron beams, a sample stage configured to secure the sample and an electron-optical column including a set of electron-optical elements configured to direct at least a portion of the one or more electron beams onto an edge portion of the sample. The system also includes a sample position reference device disposed about the sample and a…
Simultaneous capturing of overlay signals from multiple targets
Granted: August 14, 2018
Patent Number:
10048132
Metrology methods and systems are provided, in which the detected image is split at a field plane of the collection path of the metrology system's optical system into at least two pupil plane images. Optical elements such as prisms may be used to split the field plane images, and multiple targets or target cells may be measured simultaneously by spatially splitting the field plane and/or the illumination sources and/or by using two polarization types. The simultaneous capturing of…
Porosity measurement of semiconductor structures
Granted: August 7, 2018
Patent Number:
10041873
Methods and systems for performing optical measurements of the porosity of geometric structures filled with a fill material by a capillary condensation process are presented herein. Measurements are performed while the structure under measurement is treated with a flow of purge gas that includes a controlled amount of vaporized fill material. A portion of the fill material condenses and fills openings in the structural features such as pores of a planar film, spaces between structural…
CW DUV laser with improved stability
Granted: August 7, 2018
Patent Number:
10044166
A deep ultra-violet (DUV) continuous wave (CW) laser includes a fundamental CW laser configured to generate a fundamental frequency with a corresponding wavelength between about 1 ?m and 1.1 ?m, a third harmonic generator module including one or more non-linear optical (NLO) crystals that generate a third harmonic and an optional second harmonic, and a fifth harmonic generator. The fifth harmonic generator module includes a cavity resonant at the fundamental frequency, and combines the…
Laser repetition rate multiplier and flat-top beam profile generators using mirrors and/or prisms
Granted: August 7, 2018
Patent Number:
10044164
A repetition rate (pulse) multiplier includes one or more beam splitters and prisms forming one or more ring cavities with different optical path lengths that delay parts of the energy of each pulse. A series of input laser pulses circulate in the ring cavities and part of the energy of each pulse leaves the system after traversing the shorter cavity path, while another part of the energy leaves the system after traversing the longer cavity path, and/or a combination of both cavity…
System, method and computer program product for identifying fabricated component defects using a local adaptive threshold
Granted: August 7, 2018
Patent Number:
10043265
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for identifying fabricated component defects using a local adaptive threshold. In use, images are received for target and reference components of a fabricated device. Additionally, a difference image is generated from the target and reference component images, and defect candidates for the target component are identified from the difference image. Further, for each of the identified defect candidates at a location in the…
Generating simulated output for a specimen
Granted: August 7, 2018
Patent Number:
10043261
Methods and systems for generating simulated output for a specimen are provided. One method includes acquiring information for a specimen with one or more computer systems. The information includes at least one of an actual optical image of the specimen, an actual electron beam image of the specimen, and design data for the specimen. The method also includes inputting the information for the specimen into a learning based model. The learning based model is included in one or more…
