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.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 26, 2019
Filed:
Jun. 06, 2016
Kla-tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Myungjun Lee, San Jose, CA (US);
Mark D. Smith, Austin, TX (US);
Sanjay Kapasi, Austin, TX (US);
Stilian Pandev, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Dzmitry Sanko, Vallejo, CA (US);
Pradeep Subrahmanyan, Milpitas, CA (US);
Ady Levy, San Jose, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A lithography system includes an illumination source and a set of projection optics. The illumination source directs a beam of illumination from an off-axis illumination pole to a pattern mask. The pattern mask includes a set of pattern elements to generate a set of diffracted beams including illumination from the illumination pole. At least two diffracted beams of the set of diffracted beams received by the set of projection optics are asymmetrically distributed in a pupil plane of the set of projection optics. The at least two diffracted beams of the set of diffracted beams are asymmetrically incident on the sample to form a set of fabricated elements corresponding to an image of the set of pattern elements. The set of fabricated elements on the sample includes one or more indicators of a location of the sample along an optical axis of the set of projection optics.