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:
Dec. 07, 2004
Filed:
Nov. 03, 2003
Mark A. McCord, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Jan A. Lauber, San Jose, CA (US);
Paul Petric, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Ross W. Thompson, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Jason Lim, San Jose, CA (US);
Frank Y. H. Fan, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Gabor D. Toth, San Jose, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Technologies Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
One embodiment disclosed relates to a method of setting a surface charge of an area on a substrate to a desired level. The substrate is held on a stage, and a stage bias voltage applied to the stage is controlled. A flood of electrons is directed to the area. The stage bias voltage is controlled such that the surface charge of the area reaches an equilibrium at the desired level. Another embodiment disclosed relates to a method of auto-focusing a main electron beam incident upon an imaging area of a substrate. A monitor electron beam is generated and directed towards a monitoring area of the substrate at a non-perpendicular incidence angle. An in-focus band in data collected from the monitor beam is detected. The focal length of an objective lens focusing the main beam is adjusted based upon a position of the in-focus band.