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:
Apr. 10, 1979
Filed:
Jan. 16, 1978
Donald E Davis, Wappingers Falls, NY (US);
Edward V Weber, Poughkeepsie, NY (US);
Maurice C Williams, Wappingers Falls, NY (US);
Ollie C Woodard, Poughkeepsie, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus is described for performing automatic overlay measurements on wafers utilized in semiconductor manufacturing. The overlay measurements are made at selected sites on a given wafer where a single bar pattern has been overlaid over a double bar pattern. The position of the single bar center line with respect to the center line between the double bars is a direct indication of the overlay error of the two patterns. The overlay error is measured in both the X and Y dimensions and is utilized to monitor the overlay error or to produce statistics and correlations to system parameters so that the sources of overlay errors may be identified and the errors eliminated or minimized on subsequent wafers being processed.