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:
Jun. 18, 2019
Filed:
Aug. 05, 2016
Kla-tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Steve (Yifeng) Cui, Fremont, CA (US);
Chunsheng Huang, Milpitas, CA (US);
Chunhai Wang, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Christian Wolters, San Jose, CA (US);
Bret Whiteside, San Jose, CA (US);
Anatoly G. Romanovsky, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Chuanyong Huang, San Jose, CA (US);
Donald Warren Pettibone, San Jose, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and systems for reducing illumination intensity while scanning over large particles are presented herein. A surface inspection system determines the presence of a large particle in the inspection path of a primary measurement spot using a separate leading measurement spot. The inspection system reduces the incident illumination power while the large particle is within the primary measurement spot. The primary measurement spot and the leading measurement spot are separately imaged by a common imaging collection objective onto one or more detectors. The imaging based collection design spatially separates the image of the leading measurement spot from the image of the primary measurement spot at one or more wafer image planes. Light detected from the leading measurement spot is analyzed to determine a reduced power time interval when the optical power of the primary illumination beam and the leading illumination beam are reduced.