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:
Dec. 17, 2013
Filed:
Aug. 30, 2010
Ruifang Shi, Cupertino, CA (US);
Yalin Xiong, Union City, CA (US);
Ruifang Shi, Cupertino, CA (US);
Yalin Xiong, Union City, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
Provided are novel methods and systems for inspecting photomasks to identify lithographically significant contamination defects. Inspection may be performed without a separate reference image provided from a database or another die. Inspection techniques described herein involve capturing one or more test images of a photomask and constructing corresponding test 'simulation' images using specific lithographic and/or resist models. These test simulation images simulate printable and/or resist patterns of the inspected photomask. Furthermore, the initial test images are used in parallel operations to generate 'synthetic' images. These images represent a defect-free photomask pattern. The synthetic images are then used for generating reference simulation images, which are similar to the test simulation images but are free from lithographically significant contamination defects. Finally, the reference simulation images are compared to the test simulation images to identify the lithographically significant contamination defects on the photomask.