The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Dec. 11, 2018

Filed:

Jul. 02, 2015
Applicant:

Kla-tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);

Inventors:

Andrei V. Shchegrov, Campbell, CA (US);

Thaddeus Gerard Dziura, San Jose, CA (US);

Stilian Ivanov Pandev, Santa Clara, CA (US);

Leonid Poslavsky, Belmont, CA (US);

Assignee:

KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);

Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G03F 7/20 (2006.01); H01L 21/66 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G03F 7/7065 (2013.01); G03F 7/705 (2013.01); H01L 22/12 (2013.01);
Abstract

Methods and systems for estimating values of parameters of interest of actual device structures based on optical measurements of nearby metrology targets are presented herein. High throughput, inline metrology techniques are employed to measure metrology targets located near actual device structures. Measurement data collected from the metrology targets is provided to a trained signal response metrology (SRM) model. The trained SRM model estimates the value of one or more parameters of interest of the actual device structure based on the measurements of the metrology target. The SRM model is trained to establish a functional relationship between actual device parameters measured by a reference metrology system and corresponding optical measurements of at least one nearby metrology target. In a further aspect, the trained SRM is employed to determine corrections of process parameters to bring measured device parameter values within specification.


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