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. 25, 2015
Filed:
Oct. 01, 2013
Kla-tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
David Y. Wang, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Klaus Flock, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Lawrence Rotter, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Shankar Krishnan, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Johannes D. de Veer, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Catalin Filip, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Gregory Brady, Campbell, CA (US);
Muzammil Arain, Milpitas, CA (US);
Andrei Shchegrov, Campbell, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus includes (i) a bright light source for providing an illumination beam at multiple wavelengths selectable with a range from a deep ultraviolet wavelength to an infrared wavelength, (ii) illumination optics for directing the illumination beam towards a sample at selectable sets of angles of incidence (AOI's) or azimuth angles (AZ's) and polarization states to provide spectroscopic ellipsometry, wherein the illumination optics include an apodizer for controlling a spot size of the illumination beam on the sample at each of the selectable AOI/AZ sets, (iii) collection optics for directing an output beam from the sample in response to the illumination beam at each of the selectable AOI/AZ sets and polarization states towards a detector that generates an output signal or image based on the output beam, and (v) a controller for characterizing a feature of the sample based on the output signal or image.