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:
Mar. 17, 2009
Filed:
Dec. 17, 2005
Scott Andrews, Medfield, MA (US);
Neil Judell, Newtonville, MA (US);
Bills Richard Earl, Tucson, AZ (US);
Timothy R. Tiemeyer, Providence, RI (US);
Scott Andrews, Medfield, MA (US);
Neil Judell, Newtonville, MA (US);
Bills Richard Earl, Tucson, AZ (US);
Timothy R. Tiemeyer, Providence, RI (US);
KLA-Tencor Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A surface inspection system, as well as related components and methods, are provided. The surface inspection system includes a beam source subsystem, a beam scanning subsystem, a workpiece movement subsystem, an optical collection and detection subsystem, and a processing subsystem. The signal processing subsystem comprises a series of data acquisition nodes, each dedicated to a collection detection module and a plurality of data reduction nodes, made available on a peer to peer basis to each data acquisition nodes. Improved methods for detecting signal in the presence of noise are also provided.