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:
Nov. 16, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 01, 1999
Harry Levinson, Saratoga, CA (US);
Khanh B Nguyen, San Mateo, CA (US);
Anna M Minvielle, San Jose, CA (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A method of characterizing linewidth errors in a lithography system 30 used to delineate a desired pattern onto an exposure site of a wafer 32. The pattern of a reticle 34 is transferred onto an exposure site 56 of a wafer 32 by projecting a slit of light extending in a slit direction y through the reticle while scanning the reticle and the wafer in a scanning direction x relative to the lens. The exposure site 56 is conceptually divided into a grid having one series of lines extending in the scan direction x and another series of lines extending in the slit direction y whereby points corresponding to perpendicular intersections of the lines may each be assigned a pair of coordinates (x,y). The linewidths of the pattern are measured for each of the points (x,y) and a linewidth error value ERROR (x,y) is generated for each of the points (x,y). An ERROR.sub.optical (y) value for each y coordinate is calculated by averaging the ERROR (x,y) values for each group of points (x,y) having a common y coordinate. In this manner, the contribution of optical aberrations to linewidth errors may be determined.