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:
Mar. 25, 2003
Filed:
Sep. 08, 2000
Peter J. Fiekowsky, Los Altos, CA (US);
Other;
Abstract
A measurement tool connects to an automatic inspection machine for measuring microscopic characteristics of features on a photographic mask. Widths of densely packed lines are measured for features having sizes of less than about the wavelength of the examining radiation. A simulated intensity profile is subtracted from the actual measured intensity profile to obtain an error profile. The error profile provides edge position corrections which adjust the originally estimated edge positions. A new, simulated intensity profile is created and the process is repeated until the error profile is deemed acceptable. The line width is measured by measuring between the estimated edge positions. The opacity of a feature is determined and used for correcting dimension measurements. A formula determines the opacity based upon the contrast, the measured dimension and the single data point. Width or height of an irregular feature is calculated accurately. Dimension of the feature is determined using the peak width data and the peak width standard deviation.