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. 27, 2018
Filed:
Nov. 18, 2015
Asml Netherlands B.v., Veldhoven, NL;
Yen-Wen Lu, Saratoga, CA (US);
Jay Jianhui Chen, Fremont, CA (US);
Wei Liu, Los Altos, CA (US);
Boris Menchtchikov, Cupertino, CA (US);
Jen-Shiang Wang, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Te-Chih Huang, Hsinchu, TW;
ASML NETHERLANDS B.V., Veldhoven, NL;
Abstract
A method to determine an overlay error between a first structure and a second structure, wherein the first structure and second structures are on different layers on a substrate and are imaged onto the substrate by a lithographic process, the method comprising: obtaining an apparent overlay error; obtaining a systematic error caused by a factor other than misalignment of the first and second structures; and determining the overlay error by removing the systematic error from the apparent overlay error. The method may alternatively comprise obtaining apparent characteristics of diffraction orders of diffraction by an overlapping portion of the first and second structures; obtaining corrected characteristics of the diffraction orders; determining the overlay error from the corrected characteristics; and adjusting a characteristic of the lithographic process based on the overlay error.