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:
Nov. 03, 2015
Filed:
Jul. 16, 2010
Guoheng Zhao, Milpitas, CA (US);
Mehdi Vaez-iravani, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Scott Young, Soquel, CA (US);
Kris Bhaskar, San Jose, CA (US);
Guoheng Zhao, Milpitas, CA (US);
Mehdi Vaez-Iravani, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Scott Young, Soquel, CA (US);
Kris Bhaskar, San Jose, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A dark field inspection system that minimizes the speckle noise due to sample surface roughness can include a plurality of beam shaping paths for generating a composite, focused illumination line on a wafer. Each beam shaping path can illuminate the wafer at an oblique angle. The plurality of beam shaping paths can form a ring illumination. This ring illumination can reduce the speckle effect, thereby improving SNR. An objective lens can capture scattered light from the wafer and an imaging sensor can receive an output of the objective lens. Because the wafer illumination occurs at oblique angles, the objective lens can have a high NA, thereby improving optical resolution of the imaging sensor, and the resulting signal level.