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:
Aug. 05, 2014
Filed:
Jan. 03, 2007
John Hench, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Daniel Wack, Los Altos, CA (US);
Edward Ratner, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Yaoming Shi, San Ramon, CA (US);
Andrei Veldman, Issaquah, WA (US);
John Hench, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Daniel Wack, Los Altos, CA (US);
Edward Ratner, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Yaoming Shi, San Ramon, CA (US);
Andrei Veldman, Issaquah, WA (US);
KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
One embodiment relates to a method of model-based optical metrology. An area of a geometrical structure of dispersive materials on a substrate is illuminated with polarized incident electromagnetic radiation using an illuminator of a scatterometer apparatus. Spectral components of the incident electromagnetic radiation reflected from the area are measured using a detector of the scatterometer apparatus. Using a computer for the scatterometer apparatus, parameter values are determined that minimize an objective function which represents a difference between the measured spectral components and computed spectral components based on a parameterized model of the geometrical structure. Steps for determining the parameter values that minimize the objective function include: computing a solution to state equations driven by a function representing the incident electromagnetic radiation, and computing a solution to an adjoint to the state equations. Other embodiments and features are also disclosed.