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:
Jan. 19, 2010
Filed:
Oct. 30, 2007
Der-shen Wan, Tucson, AZ (US);
Der-Shen Wan, Tucson, AZ (US);
Mountain View Optical Consultant Corp., Tucson, AZ (US);
Good Advance Industries (H.K.) Limited, Central Hong Kong, CN;
Abstract
Methods are provided for estimating a surface profile of a sample in an interferometer having a broad bandwidth light source. The interferometer detects interference pattern intensity data over a series of frames of a relative scan between the sample and a reference surface. Particular methods comprise, for each location (x,y) of interest on the sample: determining an envelope of the detected interference pattern intensity data corresponding the location (x,y) of interest based on amplitudes of the detected interference pattern intensity data; determining a rough estimate zof the surface profile of the sample at the location (x,y) of interest based on the envelope; estimating a phase offset θ of the detected intensity data using a curve fitting optimization process to fit the detected intensity data to a broad bandwidth interference model; and refining the rough estimate zof the surface profile using the phase offset θ to obtain a fine estimate zof the surface profile of the sample at the location (x,y) of interest, the fine estimate zhaving improved resolution over the rough estimate z. Similar methods are used for characterizing films applied to substrates.