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:
Jul. 23, 2013
Filed:
Feb. 25, 2008
Alan Carlson, Westborough, MA (US);
Ajay Pai, Crystal, MN (US);
Tuan D. Le, Porto Alegre, BR;
Antony Ravi Philip, Apple Valley, MN (US);
Alan Carlson, Westborough, MA (US);
Ajay Pai, Crystal, MN (US);
Tuan D. Le, Porto Alegre, BR;
Antony Ravi Philip, Apple Valley, MN (US);
Rudolph Technologies, Inc., Flanders, NJ (US);
Abstract
Systems and method for monitoring semiconductor wafer fabrication processing, for example based upon EBR line inspection, including capturing at least one image of a wafer at an intermediate stage of fabrication. The captured image(s) are compressed to generate a composite representation of at least an edge zone of the wafer. An edge bead removal area is identified in the representation, and at least one feature attribute is extracted from the identified area. The extracted feature attribute is automatically assessed, and information relating to a status of the fabrication processing in generated based upon the assessment. For example, recommended modifications to the fabrication processing, either upstream or downstream of the current stage of fabrication (or both) can be generated and implemented.