Kla Tencor Corporation

Jeffrey Chard

Leonid Poslavsky

Hanyou Chu

Paul Aoyagi

Peilin Jiang

Philip D Flanner, Iii

Mikhail M Sushchik

Jonathan Iloreta

Provided are optimized scatterometry techniques for evaluating a diffracting structure. In one embodiment, a method includes computing a finite-difference derivative of a field matrix with respect to first parameters (including a geometric parameter of the diffracting structure), computing an analytic derivative of the Jones matrix with respect to the field matrix, computing a derivative of the Jones matrix with respect to the first parameters, and computing a finite-difference derivative of the Jones matrix with respect to second parameters (including a non-geometric parameter). In one embodiment, a method includes generating a transfer matrix having Taylor Series approximations for elements, and decomposing the field matrix into two or more smaller matrices based on symmetry between the incident light and the diffracting structure.

Techniques for optimized scatterometry

Growing community of inventors

San Mateo, CA, United States of America

Jeffrey Chard