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:
Oct. 03, 2006
Filed:
Jan. 07, 2005
Erwan Le Roy, Newark, CA (US);
Patricia Le Coupanec, Newark, CA (US);
Theodore R. Lundquist, Dublin, CA (US);
William B. Thompson, Los Altos, CA (US);
Mark A. Thompson, Austin, TX (US);
Lokesh Johri, San Jose, CA (US);
Erwan Le Roy, Newark, CA (US);
Patricia Le Coupanec, Newark, CA (US);
Theodore R. Lundquist, Dublin, CA (US);
William B. Thompson, Los Altos, CA (US);
Mark A. Thompson, Austin, TX (US);
Lokesh Johri, San Jose, CA (US);
Credence Systems Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for utilizing interference fringe patterns generated when milling a trench through a semiconductor substrate by a method such as FIB milling, to determine and optimize the thickness uniformity of the trench bottom. The interference fringes may be mapped and the mapping used to direct the FIB milling to those regions which are thicker to correct observed non-uniformities in the trench floor thickness by varying the pixel dwell time across the milled area. The interference fringe mapping may be used to develop computerized contour lines to automate the pixel dwell time variations as described above, for correcting non-uniformities in the trench floor thickness. The method may be applied to applications other than trench formation for backside editing, such as monitoring progress in forming a milled object.