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. 18, 1999
Filed:
Aug. 21, 1997
Ming-Chiang Li, Mitchellville, MD (US);
Other;
Abstract
Embodiments of the present invention are inspection methods and inspection apparatus for use in inspecting a sample such a wafer, photomask, and the like used in the semiconductor industry to fabricate circuits, memory, and the like. An embodiment of the inventive inspection apparatus comprises: (a) a source of radiation which outputs superbroad inspection radiation and superbroad reference radiation; (b) a radiation applicator apparatus which applies the inspection radiation as input to a portion of the sample and which applies the reference radiation as input to a reference; and (c) a radiation collection apparatus which applies at least a portion of the inspection radiation scattered by the portion of the sample as input to a defect processor and which applies at least a portion of the reference radiation scattered by the reference as input to the defect processor; wherein the defect processor measures differences between the radiation scattered by the reference and the radiation scattered from the portion of the sample.