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:
Sep. 09, 2014
Filed:
Jan. 15, 2013
Kla-tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Corp., Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and systems for segmenting pixels for wafer inspection are provided. One method includes determining a statistic for individual pixels based on a characteristic of the individual pixels in an image acquired for a wafer by an inspection system. The method also includes assigning the individual pixels to first segments based on the statistic. In addition, the method includes detecting one or more edges between the first segments in an image of the first segments and generating an edge map by projecting the one or more edges across an area corresponding to the image for the wafer. The method further includes assigning the individual pixels to second segments by applying the first segments and the edge map to the image for the wafer thereby segmenting the image. Defect detection is performed based on the second segments to which the individual pixels are assigned.