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:
Feb. 09, 2016
Filed:
May. 15, 2014
Kla-tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Andrei Veldman, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Andrei V. Shchegrov, Campbell, CA (US);
Gregory Brady, San Jose, CA (US);
Thaddeus Gerard Dziura, San Jose, CA (US);
Stilian Ivanov Pandev, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Alexander Kuznetsov, Mountain View, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and systems for evaluating the capability of a measurement system to track measurement parameters through a given process window are presented herein. Performance evaluations include random perturbations, systematic perturbations, or both to effectively characterize the impact of model errors, metrology system imperfections, and calibration errors, among others. In some examples, metrology target parameters are predetermined as part of a Design of Experiments (DOE). Estimated values of the metrology target parameters are compared to the known DOE parameter values to determine the tracking capability of the particular measurement. In some examples, the measurement model is parameterized by principal components to reduce the number of degrees of freedom of the measurement model. In addition, exemplary methods and systems for optimizing the measurement capability of semiconductor metrology systems for metrology applications subject to process variations are presented.