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:
Sep. 15, 2020
Filed:
Jan. 30, 2017
Kla-tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Antonio Arion Gellineau, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Thaddeus Gerard Dziura, San Jose, CA (US);
John J. Hench, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Andrei Veldman, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Sergey Zalubovsky, San Jose, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and systems for characterizing dimensions and material properties of semiconductor devices by full beam x-ray scatterometry are described herein. A full beam x-ray scatterometry measurement involves illuminating a sample with an X-ray beam and detecting the intensities of the resulting zero diffraction order and higher diffraction orders simultaneously for one or more angles of incidence relative to the sample. The simultaneous measurement of the direct beam and the scattered orders enables high throughput measurements with improved accuracy. The full beam x-ray scatterometry system includes one or more photon counting detectors with high dynamic range and thick, highly absorptive crystal substrates that absorb the direct beam with minimal parasitic backscattering. In other aspects, model based measurements are performed based on the zero diffraction order beam, and measurement performance of the full beam x-ray scatterometry system is estimated and controlled based on properties of the measured zero order beam.