Kla Tencor Corporation

Pavan Kumar

Lisheng Gao

Abdurrahman Sezginer

Kenong Wu

Hong Chen

Yalin Xiong

Santosh Bhattacharyya

Xiaochun Li

Grace H Chen

Junqing Huang

Raghav Babulnath

Thirupurasundari Jayaraman

Hawren Fang

Raghavan Konuru

Srikanth Kandukuri

Rahul Lakhawat

Gangadharan Sivaraman

Karthikeyan Subramanian

Michael Cook

Systems and methods increase the signal to noise ratio of optical inspection of wafers to obtain higher inspection sensitivity. The computed reference image can minimize a norm of the difference of the test image and the computed reference image. A difference image between the test image and a computed reference image is determined. The computed reference image includes a linear combination of a second set of images.

Wafer inspection using difference images

A method may include, but is not limited to, receiving a plurality of reference images of a wafer. The method may include, but is not limited to, receiving the plurality of test images of the wafer. The method may include, but is not limited to, aligning the plurality of reference images and the plurality of test images via a coarse alignment process. The method may include, but is not limited to, aligning the plurality of reference images and the plurality of test images via a fine alignment process after alignment via the coarse alignment process. The fine alignment process may include measuring individual offsets and correcting individual offset data between at least one of the plurality of reference images and the plurality of test images.

System and method for aligning semiconductor device reference images and test images

Methods and systems for determining a position of output generated by an inspection subsystem in design data space are provided. In general, some embodiments described herein are configured for substantially accurately aligning inspection subsystem output generated for a specimen to a design for the specimen despite deformation of the design in the inspection subsystem output. In addition, some embodiments are configured for generating and/or using alignment targets that can be shared across multiple specimens of the same layer and design rule for alignment of inspection subsystem output generated for a specimen to a design for the specimen.

Sub-pixel alignment of inspection to design

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Pavan Kumar