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. 20, 2018

Filed:

Dec. 28, 2015
Applicant:

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

Inventors:

Helen Liu, Milpitas, CA (US);

Xuan Zhao, Milpitas, CA (US);

Xiaowei Li, Milpitas, CA (US);

Assignee:

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

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01B 9/02 (2006.01); G01B 11/06 (2006.01); G01B 11/24 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G01B 9/02083 (2013.01); G01B 9/02078 (2013.01); G01B 9/02088 (2013.01); G01B 11/0608 (2013.01); G01B 11/2441 (2013.01); G01B 2210/56 (2013.01);
Abstract

A wafer metrology system includes an interferometer sub-system and a controller. The interferometer sub-system is configured to generate an interferogram with an intensity map that corresponds to a modulated representation of a wafer surface. Further, the interferometer sub-system includes a detector configured to capture the interferogram. The controller includes one or more processors configured to generate a wrapped phase map of the interferogram, define patterns associated with features on the wafer, and correct phase discontinuities by applying a phase unwrapping procedure to the wrapped phase map to generate an unwrapped phase map and correcting phase discontinuities in the unwrapped phase map based on the patterns, or by combining phase unwrapping and correction in a unified step. Further, the patterns comprise two or more structures such that a portion of the unwrapped phase map associated with structures of the same type is continuous across borders separating structures of the same type.


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