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. 31, 2004
Filed:
Nov. 09, 2001
Gian Francesco Lorusso, Union City, CA (US);
Laurence Stuart Hordon, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Sander Josef Gubbens, San Carlos, CA (US);
Douglas Keith Masnaghetti, San Jose, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Technologies Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention pertains to a technique of electron spectroscopic imaging that is easy to perform and cost effective. This technique allows for spatial resolution enhancement of electron beam semiconductor inspection systems (for example a critical dimension scanning electron microscope CD-SEM) as well as to obtain useful physical or chemical information on the investigated specimen. The technique involves a high pass energy filter that is alternately set, or multiplexed, at two energies. For an inspected area on a specimen, the detected intensity level at the higher energy setting is subtracted from the intensity level at the lower energy setting. The obtained differential value corresponds to electrons having energy within the range of the first and second filter settings. This obtained differential value is used to generate an image of the specimen for inspection purposes.