Kla Corporation

Zeng Zhao

Amnon Manassen

Daniel Kandel

Yoel Feler

Ohad Bachar

Barak Bringoltz

Nuriel Amir

Tal Marciano

Evgeni Gurevich

Boris Efraty

Noga Sella

Ido Adam

Nadav Carmel

Lilach Saltoun

Tal Yaziv

Ofer Zaharan

Tom Leviant

Amir Handelman

Oded Kaminsky

Moshe Cooper

Roee Sulimarski

Eltsafon Ashwal

Ze'ev Lindenfeld

Methods are provided for deriving a partially continuous dependency of metrology metric(s) on recipe parameter(s), analyzing the derived dependency, determining a metrology recipe according to the analysis, and conducting metrology measurement(s) according to the determined recipe. The dependency may be analyzed in form of a landscape such as a sensitivity landscape in which regions of low sensitivity and/or points or contours of low or zero inaccuracy are detected, analytically, numerically or experimentally, and used to configure parameters of measurement, hardware and targets to achieve high measurement accuracy. Process variation is analyzed in terms of its effects on the sensitivity landscape, and these effects are used to characterize the process variation further, to optimize the measurements and make the metrology both more robust to inaccuracy sources and more flexible with respect to different targets on the wafer and available measurement conditions.

Method of analyzing and utilizing landscapes to reduce or eliminate inaccuracy in overlay optical metrology

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Shanghai, China

Zeng Zhao