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:
Sep. 28, 1999
Filed:
Dec. 10, 1996
Akella Venkata Satya, Wappingers Falls, NY (US);
Tessema Kebede, Peekskill, NY (US);
Leon Ray Bentson, Colchester, VT (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
According to the preferred embodiment, a defect monitor is provided that facilitates the location and characterization of defects in a semiconductor device. The defect monitors are designed to facilitate automated scanning electron microscope in voltage contrast mode (SEM-VC) inspection. The defect monitors include a plurality of flags used to quickly locate defects. The SEM-VC magnification can then be increased to further isolate and characterize the defects as necessary. Thus, the preferred embodiment facilitates the use of SEM-VC scanning procedures to automatically detect and locate faults at low magnification, and then characterize the faults a higher magnification, resulting in a much higher throughput.