Texas Instruments Corporation

Raytheon Company

Other

S Charles Baber

Anthony B Wood

William G Manns

Thomas C Penn

Robert C Gibbons

Vernon R Porter

Jerry D Merryman

Samuel R McKenney

Michael C Bell

Richard R Chang

Robert M Wallace

Peijun Chen

Steven A Henck

Don J Weeks

A method uses an infrared imaging system to produce an image of a scene. Actual infrared radiation from the scene is detected to form a biased signal representing the radiances of objects wiithin the scene, and the biased signal is diffracted by causing rays of the radiation to pass through an array of lenslets at angles devitated from their normal path. The array includes an infrared transmissive deformable film which retains a pattern stamped into it, the pattern including a plurality of the diffracting lenslets. The diffracted and defocused radiation is detected to form a reference signal, the reference signal is subtracted from the biased signal to obtain an unbiased signal, and an image is generated and displayed in reponse to the unbiased signal.

Infrared chopper using binary diffractive optics

An integrated circuit fabrication process in which residual fluorine contamination on metal surfaces after ashing is removed by exposure to an NH.sub.3 /O.sub.2 plasma.

Low temperature process for post-etch defluoridation of metals

A laser pattern inspection and/or writing system which writes or inspects a pattern on a target on a stage, by raster scanning the target pixels. Inspection can also be done by substage illumination with non-laser light. A database, organized into frames and strips, represents an ideal pattern as one or more polygons. Each polygon's data description is contained within a single data frame. The database is transformed into a turnpoint polygon representation, then a left and right vector representation, then an addressed pixel representation, then a bit-mapped representation of the entire target. Most of the transformations are carried out in parallel pipelines. Guardbands around polygon sides are used for error filtering during inspection. Guardbands are polygons, and frames containing only guardband information are sent down dedicated pipelines. Error filtering also is done at the time of pixel comparisons of ideal with real patterns, and subsequently during defect area consolidation. Defect areas are viewed as color overlays of ideal and actual target areas, from data generated during real time. Defect areas can be de-zoomed to allow larger target areas to be viewed. An autofocus keeps the scanning laser beam in focus on the target. The inspection system is used to find fiducial marks to orient the target prior to raster scanning. IC bars are provided with alignment marks for locating each IC bar. Interferometers or glass scale encoders allow the stage position to be known.

Laser pattern/inspector with a linearly ramped chirp deflector

A method and apparatus for precise control of a galvanometer patterning system is provided in which a patterning beam (12) is deflected off of a galvanometer mirror (14) toward a work piece (10). The position of the galvanometer mirror (14) is determined by generating a measurement beam (20), transmitting it through a cylinder lens (26) and deflecting it off of the galvanometer mirror (14). The deflected measurement beam (20) is filtered through grating filter (28) having two side-by-side gratings. Light passing through the side-by-side gratings filter (28) is focused on a detector (36) through an anamorphic condenser (32 and 34).

Method and apparatus for precision control of galvanometer patterning

Laser scanner using focusing acousto-optic device

Growing community of inventors

Richardson, TX, United States of America

S Charles Baber