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. 23, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 10, 1999
Brooke M. Noack, Round Rock, TX (US);
Tim Z. Hossain, Austin, TX (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A method is presented which uses glancing-angle X-ray fluorescence techniques to determine the roughness of a target surface. A primary X-ray beam is incident upon the target surface at an angle of incidence of less than about 0.2 degrees. Intensities of the elastically scattered primary radiation peak and at least one emitted secondary radiation peak are recorded. The experimental conditions are varied, preferably by changing the angle of incidence of the primary beam slightly, to generate a set of scattered primary and emitted secondary peak intensities. The secondary peak intensity may then be plotted against the scattered primary peak intensity. The plotted points form a line, and the slope of the line is determined. This slope depends on the roughness of the sample surface. The exact roughness may be obtained by comparing the slope to calibration data obtained using direct roughness measurements by a technique such as atomic force microscopy.