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. 14, 2025
Filed:
May. 31, 2022
Applicant:
Kla Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Inventors:
Assignee:
KLA Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 21/67 (2006.01); G01N 21/88 (2006.01); G01N 21/95 (2006.01); G02B 5/18 (2006.01); G02B 5/30 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 21/67288 (2013.01); G01N 21/8806 (2013.01); G01N 21/9501 (2013.01); G02B 5/1814 (2013.01); G02B 5/1819 (2013.01); G02B 5/1833 (2013.01); G02B 5/3083 (2013.01); G02B 5/3091 (2013.01); G01N 2021/8848 (2013.01);
Abstract
An optical inspection system includes one or more single-material gratings to convert the polarization of light scattered from a target from an elliptical polarization that varies spatially across a collection pupil to a linear polarization that is uniformly oriented across the collection pupil. The one or more single-material gratings have phase retardation that varies spatially across the collection pupil in accordance with the elliptical polarization. The optical inspection system also includes a linear polarizer to filter out the linearly polarized light.