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.

Date of Patent:
Feb. 13, 2018

Filed:

Nov. 07, 2016
Applicant:

Kla-tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);

Inventors:

Chun Guan, Dublin, CA (US);

Yalin Xiong, Pleasanton, CA (US);

Joseph M. Blecher, San Jose, CA (US);

Robert A. Comstock, Pleasanton, CA (US);

Mark J. Wihl, Tracy, CA (US);

Assignee:

KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01N 21/00 (2006.01); G06T 7/00 (2017.01); G01N 21/956 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G06T 7/0006 (2013.01); G01N 21/956 (2013.01); G01N 21/95607 (2013.01); G01N 2021/95676 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30148 (2013.01);
Abstract

A reticle that is within specifications is inspected to generate baseline candidate defects and their location and size. After using the reticle in photolithography, the reticle is inspected to generate current candidate defects and their location and size. An inspection report of filtered candidate defects and their images is generated so that these candidate defects include a first subset of the current candidate defects and their images and exclude a second subset of the current candidate defects and their images. Each of the first subset of candidate defects has a location and size that fails to match any baseline candidate defect's location and size, and each of the excluded second subset of candidate defects has a location and size that matches a baseline candidate defect's location and size.


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