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:
May. 17, 2005
Filed:
Jul. 23, 2002
Alexander Leybovich, Hilliard, OH (US);
Alexander Leybovich, Hilliard, OH (US);
Tosoh SMD, Inc., Grove City, OH (US);
Abstract
A preferred, non-destructive method for characterizing sputter target cleanliness includes the steps of sequentially irradiating the test sample with sonic energy predominantly of target sputter track areas; detecting echoes induced by the sonic energy; and discriminating texture-related backscattering noise from the echoes to obtain modified amplitude signals. These modified amplitude signals are compared with one or more calibration values so as to detect flaw data points at certain positions or locations where the comparison indicates the presence of at least one flaw. Most preferably, groups of the flaw data pixels corresponding to single large flaws are bound together so as to generate an adjusted set of flaw data points in which each group is replaced with a single, most significant data point. The adjusted set of flaw data point is used to calculate one or more cleanliness factors, or to plot a histogram, which characterizes the cleanliness of the sample.