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:
May. 31, 2016
Filed:
Jul. 01, 2014
Kla-tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Eugene Shifrin, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Ashok Kulkarni, San Jose, CA (US);
Kris Bhaskar, San Jose, CA (US);
Graham Michael Lynch, Singapore, SG;
John Raymond Jordan, III, Mountain View, CA (US);
Chwen-Jiann Fang, Palo Alto, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Corp., Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
Systems and methods for detecting defects on a wafer are provided. One method includes determining locations of all instances of a weak geometry in a design for a wafer. The locations include random, aperiodic locations. The weak geometry includes one or more features that are more prone to defects than other features in the design. The method also includes scanning the wafer with a wafer inspection system to thereby generate output for the wafer with one or more detectors of the wafer inspection system. In addition, the method includes detecting defects in at least one instance of the weak geometry based on the output generated at two or more instances of the weak geometry in a single die on the wafer.