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:
Aug. 20, 2002
Filed:
Feb. 08, 2001
Santo Credendino, Poughkeepsie, NY (US);
Timothy J. Wiltshire, Fishkill, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The present invention relates generally to the field of semiconductor device manufacturing, and more specifically to a method for aligning a projected photolithography mask pattern image with respect to the underlying device layer. The method involves measuring the overlay error between product features in the projected layer and product features in the underlying layer, determining an adjustment factor based on these measurements, and applying this adjustment factor to the overlay error between reference features located in the kerf of the projected layer and reference features in the kerf of the underlying layer. Thus, nonzero offsets or adjustment factors for box-in-box overlay targets are entered into a stepper or scanner tool, in order to minimize within field product overlay errors.