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:
Sep. 12, 2006
Filed:
Dec. 09, 2002
Evan R. Mapoles, San Ramon, CA (US);
Grace H. Chen, San Jose, CA (US);
Christopher F. Bevis, Los Gatos, CA (US);
David W. Shortt, Milpitas, CA (US);
Evan R. Mapoles, San Ramon, CA (US);
Grace H. Chen, San Jose, CA (US);
Christopher F. Bevis, Los Gatos, CA (US);
David W. Shortt, Milpitas, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Technologies Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A dark field surface inspection tool of the invention includes an illumination source for directing a light beam onto a work piece. The tool includes a scanning element for enabling selected inspection points on the work piece to be scanned by the light beam. During scanning, the light scattered by each inspection point generates light scattering patterns associated with the surface characteristics of the scanned inspection point. The tool includes a photo detector array having photosensitive elements arranged to receive light from the light scattering pattern, thereby capturing an image of the light scattering pattern for each inspection point. Comparison circuitry is included for comparing light scattering patterns with a reference image to enable the identification of defects at the inspection point. The invention also includes a dark field surface inspection method comprising illuminating an inspection surface with a light beam, capturing images of light scattered from the inspection surface and comparing those images with suitable reference images to detect defects in the inspection surface.