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:
Oct. 18, 2016
Filed:
Feb. 03, 2016
Kla-tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Guorong V. Zhuang, San Jose, CA (US);
Shankar Krishnan, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Lanhua Wei, Fremont, CA (US);
Walter Mieher, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Paul Aoyagi, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milipitas, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and systems for performing broadband spectroscopic metrology with reduced sensitivity to grating anomalies are presented herein. A reduction in sensitivity to grating anomalies is achieved by selecting a subset of available system parameter values for measurement analysis. The reduction in sensitivity to grating anomalies enables an optimization of any combination of precision, sensitivity, accuracy, system matching, and computational effort. These benefits are particularly evident in optical metrology systems having large ranges of available azimuth angle, angle of incidence, illumination wavelength, and illumination polarization. Predictions of grating anomalies are determined based on a measurement model that accurately represents the interaction between the measurement system and the periodic metrology target under measurement. A subset of available system parameter values is selected to reduce the impact of grating anomalies on measurement results. The selected subset of available system parameters is implemented on a configurable spectroscopic metrology system performing measurements.