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:
May. 31, 2022
Filed:
Mar. 27, 2020
Applied Materials Israel Ltd., Rehovot, IL;
Ariel Shkalim, DN Sede-Gat, IL;
Vladimir Ovechkin, Ashdod, IL;
Evgeny Bal, Natanya, IL;
Ronen Madmon, Mazkeret Batia, IL;
Ori Petel, Ramat-Gan, IL;
Alexander Chereshnya, Kfar Saba, IL;
Oren Shmuel Cohen, Tel Aviv, IL;
Boaz Cohen, Lehavim, IL;
Applied Materials Israel Ltd., Rehovot, IL;
Abstract
There is provided a mask inspection system and a method of mask inspection. The method comprises: during a runtime scan of a mask of a semiconductor specimen, processing a plurality of aerial images of the mask acquired by the mask inspection system to calculate a statistic-based Edge Positioning Displacement (EPD) of a potential defect, wherein the statistic-based EPD is calculated using a Print Threshold (PT) characterizing the mask and is applied to each of the one or more acquired aerial images to calculate respective EPD of the potential defect therein; and filtering the potential defect as a 'runtime true' defect when the calculated statistic-based EPD exceeds a predefined EPD threshold, and filtering out the potential defect as a 'false' defect when the calculated statistic-based EPD is lower than the predefined EPD threshold. The method can further comprise after-runtime EPD-based filtering of the plurality of “runtime true” defects.