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:
Oct. 10, 2023
Filed:
Feb. 01, 2021
Kla-tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Choon Hoong Hoo, Round Rock, TX (US);
Fangren Ji, Austin, TX (US);
Amnon Manassen, Haifa, IL;
Liran Yerushalmi, Zicron Yaacob, IL;
Antonio Mani, Leuven, BE;
Allen Park, San Jose, CA (US);
Stilian Pandev, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Andrei Shchegrov, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Jon Madsen, Los Altos, CA (US);
KLA-TENCOR CORPORATION, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and system for measuring overlay in a semiconductor manufacturing process comprise capturing an image of a feature in an article at a predetermined manufacturing stage, deriving a quantity of an image parameter from the image and converting the quantity into an overlay measurement. The conversion is by reference to an image parameter quantity derived from a reference image of a feature at the same predetermined manufacturing stage with known overlay ('OVL'). There is also disclosed a method of determining a device inspection recipe for use by an inspection tool comprising identifying device patterns as candidate device care areas that may be sensitive to OVL, deriving an OVL response for each identified pattern, correlating the OVL response with measured OVL, and selecting some or all of the device patterns as device care areas based on the correlation.