Kla Tencor Corporation

Kla Corporation

Kla-tencor Technologies Corporation

Ilya Bezel

Anatoly Shchemelinin

Matthew Derstine

Anant Chimmalgi

Eugene Shifrin

Matthew Panzer

Lauren Wilson

Kenneth P Gross

Gildardo Rios Delgado

Andrey Evgenievich Stepanov

Richard William Solarz

Wei Zhao

Rajeev Patil

Joshua Wittenberg

Rahul Yadav

Jincheng Wang

Rudolf C Brunner

Leonid Borisovich Zvedenuk

Yanming Zhao

David W Shortt

Amir Torkaman

Sebaek Oh

Moshe Markowitz

James Andrew Allen

Maxim Khokhlov

Younus Vora

Anatoly Vasiliev

Boris Vasilyevich Potapkin

Amnon Manassen

Andrei V Shchegrov

Mark Ghinovker

Andrew V Hill

Daniel Kandel

Alex Salnik

Ohad Bachar

Oleg Khodykin

Alexander Svizher

Lawrence D Rotter

Gregory Brady

Derrick A Shaughnessy

Avi Abramov

Ilan Sela

Muzammil A Arain

Yaron Ish-Shalom

Erik Kim

Anatoly A Vasiliev

Oleg Shulepov

Oleg Tsibulevsky

Rudy Flores Garcia

Michael Friedmann

Steven R Lange

Shiyu Zhang

Xiumei Liu

Sumeet Kumar

Brooke Bruguier

Daniel Scott

Nikolay Sherbak

Ken Gross

Maksim Alexandrovich Deminskii

Yuriy Gennadievich Kutsenko

William Schumaker

Vitaly K Rerikh

John Szilagyi

Michael Navone

Aizaz Bhuiyan

Quang Giang

Dan Scott

Cedric Lasfargues

James Allen

Anatoly Shcemelinin

Matthew Alan Panzer

A compact LSP broadband light includes a gas containment structure containing a mixture of a first noble gas and a second noble gas, a filter tube positioned within the gas containment structure, an input window, and a pump source. The laser pump source directs an optical pump through the input window to sustain a plasma within the filter tube. The first noble gas absorbs broadband light within a first and a second wavelength band. The filter tube absorbs broadband light having a wavelength below a selected threshold. The absorption of broadband light by the first noble gas and the filter tube provide long-pass filtering to protect one or more downstream optical elements. The gas containment structure includes an output optical window for transmission of filtered broadband light. The gas containment structure includes a gas inlet and outlet for generating a reverse vortex flow pattern within the filter tube.

High-power compact VUV laser-sustained plasma light source

A LSP broadband light source is disclosed. The light source may include a gas containment structure for containing a gas. The light source may include a laser pump source configured to generate an optical pump to sustain a plasma within the gas containment structure for generation of broadband light. The light source may include a tapered window configured to transmit broadband light through an aperture within a wall of the gas containment structure, the tapered window including a tapered section including a tapered surface, wherein the tapered surface is configured to deflect light impinging on a peripheral portion of the tapered window away from a portion of the gas containment structure to protect the portion of the gas containment structure.

Laser-sustained plasma light source with tapered window

A laser-sustained broadband light source includes a gas containment structure and multiple jet nozzles. The jet nozzles are configured to direct multiple liquid jets of plasma-forming material in directions to collide with one another within the gas containment structure. The laser-sustained broadband light source further includes a laser pump source configured to generate an optical pump to sustain a plasma in a region of the gas containment structure at a collision point of the plurality of liquid jets and a light collector element configured to collect broadband light emitted from the plasma.

Laser-sustained plasma source based on colliding liquid jets

A plasma lamp for use in a laser-sustained plasma (LSP) light source is disclosed. The plasma lamp includes a gas containment structure for containing a gas, a gas seal positioned at a base of the gas containment structure, a gas inlet, and a gas outlet. The plasma lamp includes a gas swirler including a set of nozzles configured to generate a vortex gas flow and a swirler shaft including an inlet channel for delivering the gas from the gas inlet to the nozzles and an outlet channel for delivering the gas from the gas containment structure to the gas outlet. The plasma lamp includes a distributor including one or more plenums to distribute the gas from the gas inlet into the swirler. The plasma lamp may also include a deflector fluidically coupled to the swirler shaft and extending above the set of nozzles and configured to direct gas flow around the swirler.

Swirler for laser-sustained plasma light source with reverse vortex flow

A system for generating pump illumination for laser sustained plasma (LSP) is disclosed. The system may include an illumination source configured to output a pump beam, one or more focusing optics, and one or more beam shapers configured to reshape the pump beam to provide a shaped pupil power distribution at an illumination pupil plane of the one or more focusing optics. The shaped pupil power distribution may include at least one of a flat-top distribution or an inverted distribution with a central local intensity minimum. Further, the one or more focusing optics may receive the pump beam from the one or more beam shapers and direct the pump beam to a plasma-forming material, whereby the pump beam at least one of forms or maintains a plasma that emits broadband illumination.

System and method for pumping laser sustained plasma with an illumination source having modified pupil power distribution

A plasma lamp is disclosed. The plasma lamp includes a gas containment structure configured to contain a gas and generate a plasma within the gas containment structure. The gas containment structure is formed from a glass material transparent to illumination from a pump laser and the broadband radiation emitted by the plasma. The gas containment structure includes a glass wall and the glass within the glass wall includes an OH concentration distribution that varies across a thickness of the glass wall.

Laser-sustained plasma lamps with graded concentration of hydroxyl radical

An illumination system includes a gas containment vessel configured to contain a gas. The illumination system also includes one or more pump sources configured to generate one or more pump beams. The illumination system includes an ozone generation unit including one or more illumination sources. The one or more illumination sources are configured to generate a beam of illumination of an energy sufficient for converting a portion of diatomic oxygen (O) contained within the gas containment vessel to triatomic oxygen (O). One or more energy sources are configured to ignite the plasma within the gas contained within the gas containment vessel via absorption of energy of the one or more energy sources by a portion of the triatomic oxygen, wherein the plasma emits broadband radiation.

System and method for vacuum ultraviolet lamp assisted ignition of oxygen-containing laser sustained plasma sources

A system for generating laser sustained broadband light includes a pump source configured to generate a pumping beam, a gas containment structure for containing a gas and a multi-pass optical assembly. The multi-pass optical assembly includes one or more optical elements configured to perform a plurality of passes of the pumping beam through a portion of the gas to sustain a broadband-light-emitting plasma. The one or more optical elements are arranged to collect an unabsorbed portion of the pumping beam transmitted through the plasma and direct the collected unabsorbed portion of the pumping beam back into the portion of the gas.

High efficiency laser-sustained plasma light source with collection of broadband radiation

A laser-sustained plasma (LSP) light source with reverse vortex flow is disclosed. The LSP source includes gas cell including a gas containment structure including a body, neck, and shaft. The gas cell includes one or more gas delivery lines for delivery gas to one or more nozzles positioned in or below the neck of the gas containment structure. The gas cell includes one or more gas inlets and one or more gas outlets arranged to generate a reverse vortex flow within the gas containment structure of the gas cell. The LSP source also includes a laser pump source configured to generate an optical pump to sustain a plasma in a region of the gas containment structure. The LSP source includes a light collector element configured to collect at least a portion of broadband light emitted from the plasma.

Laser-sustained plasma light source with reverse vortex flow

A laser-sustained plasma (LSP) light source with vortex gas flow is disclosed. The LSP source includes a gas containment structure for containing a gas, one or more gas inlets configured to flow gas into the gas containment structure, and one or more gas outlets configured to flow gas out of the gas containment structure. The one or more gas inlets and the one or more gas outlets are arranged to generate a vortex gas flow within the gas containment structure. The LSP source also includes a laser pump source configured to generate an optical pump to sustain a plasma in a region of the gas containment structure within an inner gas flow within the vortex gas flow. The LSP source includes a light collector element configured to collect at least a portion of broadband light emitted from the plasma.

Laser-sustained plasma light source with gas vortex flow

A broadband light source is disclosed. The broadband light source includes a rotatable gas containment structure. The broadband light source includes a rotational drive system configured to rotate the rotatable gas containment structure about the horizontal axis of rotation of the rotatable gas containment structure. The broadband light source includes a pump source configured to generate pump illumination and a reflector element configured to direct a portion of the pump illumination into the gas to sustain a plasma. The reflector is configured to collect a portion of broadband light emitted from the plasma.

Rotating lamp for laser-sustained plasma illumination source

A system for generating pump illumination for laser sustained plasma (LSP) is disclosed. In embodiments, the system includes an illumination source and a beam shaper. The illumination source can be configured to output illumination having a first pupil power distribution. In embodiments, the beam shaper is configured to receive the illumination having the first pupil power distribution from the illumination source and is further configured to output pump illumination having a second pupil power distribution that is different from the first pupil power distribution.

Methods and systems for enhanced defect detection based on images collected by at least two imaging detectors at different times are described. In some embodiments, the time between image measurements is at least 100 microseconds and no more than 10 milliseconds. In one aspect, one or more defects of interest are identified based on a composite image of a measured area generated based on a difference between collected images. In a further aspect, measurement conditions associated with the each imaged location are adjusted to be different for measurements performed by at least two imaging detectors at different times. In some embodiments, the measurement conditions are adjusted during the time between measurements by different imaging detectors. Exemplary changes of measurement conditions include environmental changes at the wafer under measurement and changes made to the optical configuration of the inspection system.

Differential imaging for single-path optical wafer inspection

A system for pumping laser sustained plasma is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of pump modules configured to generate respective pulses of pump illumination for the laser sustained plasma, wherein at least one pump module is configured to generate a train of pump pulses that is interlaced in time with another train of pump pulses generated by at least one other pump module of the plurality of pump modules. The system further includes a plurality of non-collinear illumination paths configured to direct the respective pulses of pump illumination from the plurality of pump modules into a collection volume of the laser sustained plasma.

System and method for pumping laser sustained plasma with interlaced pulsed illumination sources

A spectrometer apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus may include light source and the light source may include a chamber for sustaining a plasma within the internal volume of the chamber. The apparatus may also include a spectrometer cavity and a windowless entrance slit. The windowless entrance slit may fluidically and optically couple the spectrometer cavity and the internal volume of the chamber of the light source. Further, the apparatus may include a diffractive element disposed within the spectrometer cavity and a window positioned at an opposite end of the spectrometer cavity from the windowless slit. The apparatus may also include a camera and a spectrometer.

Spectrometer for vacuum ultraviolet measurements in high-pressure environment

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Ilya Bezel