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.

Date of Patent:
Apr. 27, 2004

Filed:

Jun. 20, 2000
Applicant:
Inventors:

Xiaoming Yin, Hopewell Junction, NY (US);

Christopher Gould, Glen Allen, VA (US);

Gerhard Kunkel, Fishkill, NY (US);

Assignee:
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01B 1/100 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G01B 1/100 ;
Abstract

In an overlay measurement mark comprising an inner box and an outer box located at a predetermined area on a mask through which patterns are formed on a semiconductor device, the improvement of an overlay mark that extends the overlay measurement range comprising: in-focused marks means printed at an optimal or ideal focal plane level from an illumination source, and de-focused marks means located at a different focus level from the optimal focal plane to provide image placement shift of the de-focused marks larger than that of the in-focused marks means to enable measurement of the shift of de-focused marks that are not attributable to a mechanical alignment error to be determined with greater accuracy.


Find Patent Forward Citations

Loading…