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. 25, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 04, 2002
James N. Wiley, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Jun Ye, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Shauh-Teh Juang, Saratoga, CA (US);
David S. Alles, Los Altos, CA (US);
Yen-Wen Lu, Los Altos, CA (US);
Yu Cao, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Technologies Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
Disclosed is a method of inspecting a reticle defining a circuit layer pattern that is used within a corresponding semiconductor process to generate corresponding patterns on a semiconductor wafer. A test image of the reticle is provided, and the test image has a plurality of test characteristic values. A baseline image containing an expected pattern of the test image is also provided. The baseline image has a plurality of baseline characteristic values that correspond to the test characteristic values. The test characteristic values are compared to the baseline characteristic values such that a plurality of difference values are calculated for each pair of test and baseline characteristic values. Statistical information is also collected.