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:
Jun. 22, 2004
Filed:
Dec. 31, 2002
Anne L. Testoni, Bolton, MA (US);
KLA-Tencor Technologies Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
Techniques for determining the composition of a specimen under inspection by measuring backscatter electron emissions and then estimating the atomic number of the specimen are described. Typically, this technique is useful for inspecting features, such as defects, upon very small specimens such as semiconductor wafers. Charged particle beams are typically required to cause backscatter electrons to emanate from a specimen. One embodiment of the present invention involves measuring the backscatter electron count or current of a reference sample for which the atomic number is known. Another embodiment involves the use of an atomic number lookup table that is organized by feature size parameters and normalized backscatter electron counts or currents.