公开(公告)号：US10557803B2

公开(公告)日：2020-02-11

申请号：US16113165

申请日：2018-08-27

申请人： Nanometrics Incorporated

发明人： Graham M. Lynch

IPC分类号： G01N21/956 ,  G01N21/95 ,  G01N21/88 ,  G01B11/06

摘要： A surface topography of a sample with a transparent surface layer is measured using surface topographies of a reference sample. The surface topographies of the reference sample are measured before and after the deposition of an opaque film over the surface layer. A surface topography of the sample is measured at the same relative positions as the surface topography measurements of the reference sample. A height difference at multiple corresponding positions on the sample and the pre-opaque film reference sample is determined. The actual surface height of the reference sample at each position is known from the surface topography of the post-opaque reference sample. The actual surface topography of the sample is determined by combining the actual surface heights of the reference sample with the determined height differences. The resulting surface topography of the sample may be used to characterize the sample, such as detecting defects on the sample.

公开(公告)号：US20190170634A1

公开(公告)日：2019-06-06

申请号：US15994958

申请日：2018-05-31

申请人： Nanometrics Incorporated

发明人： Paul A. DOYLE ,  Ryan Tsai ,  Morgan A. Crouch

IPC分类号： G01N21/15 ,  G01N21/95 ,  G03F7/20

摘要： A purge system includes a purge gas distribution manifold that includes at least one port through which light beam from an optical metrology or inspection head is transmitted. The purge gas distribution manifold includes a bottom surface having one or more apertures through which purge gas is expelled. The bottom surface is held in close proximity to the top surface of the substrate and the apertures may be distributed over the bottom surface of the purge gas distribution manifold so that purge gas is uniformly distributed over the entirety of the top surface of the substrate at all measurement positions of the substrate with respect to the optical metrology or inspection head.

公开(公告)号：US10107621B2

公开(公告)日：2018-10-23

申请号：US13766598

申请日：2013-02-13

申请人： Nanometrics Incorporated

发明人： Nigel P. Smith

IPC分类号： G01B11/14 ,  G01B11/26 ,  G03F7/20

摘要： An image based overlay measurement is performed using an overlay target that includes shifted overlying gratings. The overlay target is imaged and an asymmetry is measured in the image of the overlaid gratings. The asymmetry is used to determine the overlay error. For each measurement direction, the overlay target may include two or more overlay measurement pads with different offsets between the top and bottom gratings. The measured asymmetries and offsets in the overlay measurement pads may be used to determine the overlay error, e.g., using self-calibration. The pitch and critical dimensions of the overlay target may be optimized to produce a greatest change of symmetry with overlay error for a numerical aperture and wavelength of light used by the image based metrology device.

公开(公告)号：US20170024509A1

公开(公告)日：2017-01-26

申请号：US14809061

申请日：2015-07-24

申请人： Nanometrics Incorporated

发明人： Jiangtao HU ,  Bingqing Li ,  Zhuan Liu

IPC分类号： G06F17/50

CPC分类号： G06F17/5081 ,  G01B2210/56 ,  G01N21/956 ,  G03F7/70625 ,  G03F7/70683 ,  H01L22/30

摘要： A measurement target for a semiconductor device is designed. The semiconductor device includes a structure to be measured that has a spectrum response that is comparable to or below system noise level for an optical critical dimension measurement device to be used to measure the structure. The measurement target is designed by obtaining a process window and design rules for the semiconductor device and determining prospective pitches through modeling to identify pitches that produce a spectrum response from the structures that is at least 10 times greater than a system noise level for the optical critical dimension measurement device. A resonance window for each prospective pitch is determined and robustness of the resonance window is determined through modeling. Pitches of the array are selected based on the prospective pitches, resonance windows, and robustness. The target design may accordingly be produced and used to generate a measurement target.

摘要翻译： 设计了半导体器件的测量对象。 该半导体器件包括具有与要用于测量该结构的光学临界尺寸测量装置相当或低于系统噪声水平的光谱响应的被测量结构。 测量目标是通过获得半导体器件的工艺窗口和设计规则来设计的，并通过建模来确定预期间距，从而识别从结构体产生频谱响应的间距，该结构比光学关键系统的系统噪声水平高至少10倍 尺寸测量装置。 确定每个预期音调的共振窗口，并通过建模确定共振窗口的鲁棒性。 基于预期间距，共振窗口和鲁棒性来选择阵列的间距。 因此可以产生目标设计并用于产生测量目标。

公开(公告)号：US20130257270A1

公开(公告)日：2013-10-03

申请号：US13836852

申请日：2013-03-15

申请人： NANOMETRICS INCORPORATED

发明人： Ronald A. Rojeski

IPC分类号： H01J61/12 ,  H01J61/16

CPC分类号： H01J61/12 ,  B82Y20/00 ,  B82Y99/00 ,  H01J61/16 ,  H01J65/042

摘要： A plasma lamp includes a capsule with a gas contained within the capsule and an ignition source to ionize the gas to produce a light emitting plasma. The ignition source includes field defining conductors within the capsule and a radio frequency source external to the capsule. The radio frequency source and the field defining conductors are configured so that the field defining conductors will produce electric fields in response to RF energy from the radio frequency source and the electric field ionizes at least a portion of the gas.

摘要翻译： 等离子体灯包括具有包含在胶囊内的气体的胶囊和用于使气体离子化以产生发光等离子体的点火源。 点火源包括胶囊内的场限定导体和胶囊外部的射频源。 射频源和场限定导体被配置为使得场限定导体将响应于来自射频源的RF能量而产生电场，并且电场使至少一部分气体电离。

公开(公告)号：US20180348055A1

公开(公告)日：2018-12-06

申请号：US15966918

申请日：2018-04-30

申请人： Nanometrics Incorporated

发明人： Amit Shachaf ,  Pedro Vagos ,  Michael Elad

IPC分类号： G01J3/28 ,  G03F7/20 ,  G01N21/88 ,  G01N21/956

CPC分类号： G01J3/28 ,  G01N21/8851 ,  G01N21/956 ,  G03F7/70625

摘要： The effective spot size of a spectroscopic metrology device is reduced through deconvolution of a measurement spectra set acquired from a measurement target combined with a training spectra set obtained from a training target. The measurement spectra set may be obtained using sparse sampling of a grid scan of a measurement target. The training spectra set is obtained from a grid scan of a training target that is similar to the measurement target. The training spectra set and the measurement spectra set include spectra from different grid nodes. Deconvolution of the measurement spectra and the training spectra sets produces an estimated spectrum for the measurement target that is an estimate of a spectrum from the measurement target produced with incident light having an effective spot size that is smaller than the actual spot size. One or more characteristics of the measurement target may then be determined using the estimated spectrum.

公开(公告)号：US20180259742A1

公开(公告)日：2018-09-13

申请号：US15910948

申请日：2018-03-02

申请人： Nanometrics Incorporated

发明人： Andrew Saul Klassen ,  Paul Doyle

IPC分类号： G02B7/18

CPC分类号： G02B7/1805 ,  G02B5/04 ,  G02B5/3083

摘要： An elongated rectangular Rochon polarizer, e.g., having a height to width or depth ratio of at least 2.5, is securely held in a non-adhesive mounting assembly. The mounting assembly includes a plurality of compression elements that press the Rochon polarizer against corresponding reference points to properly align the Rochon polarizer within the mounting assembly. Moreover, air gaps between the Rochon polarizer and the sidewalls of the mounting assembly are provided to minimize thermal conduction between the mounting assembly and the Rochon polarizer and to provide thermal convection to cool the Rochon polarizer, thereby reducing risk of catastrophic delamination of the Rochon polarizer due to thermal effects.

公开(公告)号：US09903806B2

公开(公告)日：2018-02-27

申请号：US14109564

申请日：2013-12-17

申请人： Nanometrics Incorporated

发明人： Amit Shachaf

IPC分类号： G01J4/00 ,  G01N21/21 ,  G02B7/28

CPC分类号： G01N21/211 ,  G02B7/28

摘要： An optical metrology device, such as an ellipsometer, includes a focusing system that adjusts the focal position of the metrology device in real time so that focus may be maintained during movement of the measurement locations on the sample, e.g., using closed loop control. A filtered focus signal may be used to adjust the focal position while moving to a measurement location. Additionally, the focus signal may be coarsely filtered and finely filtered, where a coarse filtered focus signal is used to adjust the focal position while moving to a measurement location and a fine filtered focus signal is used to adjust the focal position when at the measurement location. An open loop control may be used in which once at the measurement location, a filtered focus signal is used to adjust the focal position when the filtered focus signal has no offset with respect to the focus signal.

公开(公告)号：US09547244B2

公开(公告)日：2017-01-17

申请号：US14685494

申请日：2015-04-13

申请人： Nanometrics Incorporated

发明人： Jie Li

IPC分类号： G03F7/20 ,  G01B11/14 ,  G03F9/00

CPC分类号： G03F7/70633 ,  G01B11/14 ,  G03F7/70466 ,  G03F7/70683 ,  G03F9/7076

摘要： A plurality of overlay errors in a structure is determined using a target that includes a plurality of diffraction based overlay pads. Each diffraction based overlay pad has the same number of periodic patterns as the structure under test. Additionally, each diffraction based overlay pad includes a programmed shift between each pair of periodic patterns. The pads are illuminated and the resulting light is detected and used to simultaneously determine the plurality of overlay errors in the structure based on the programmed shifts. The overlay errors may be determined using a subset of elements of the Mueller matrix or by using the resulting spectra from the pads.

摘要翻译： 使用包括多个基于衍射的覆盖焊盘的目标来确定结构中的多个覆盖误差。 每个基于衍射的覆盖层具有与被测结构相同数量的周期性图案。 另外，每个基于衍射的覆盖层包括每对周期性图案之间的编程移位。 焊盘被照亮，并且检测到所得到的光并且用于基于编程的位移同时确定结构中的多个覆盖误差。 可以使用Mueller矩阵的元素的子集或通过使用来自垫的所得到的光谱来确定覆盖误差。

公开(公告)号：US20160341670A1

公开(公告)日：2016-11-24

申请号：US14720644

申请日：2015-05-22

申请人： Nanometrics Incorporated

发明人： Pedro Vagos

IPC分类号： G01N21/88 ,  G01N21/55 ,  G01N21/21

CPC分类号： G01N21/8851 ,  G01N21/211 ,  G01N21/55 ,  G01N2021/213 ,  G01N2021/8896 ,  G03F7/70625

摘要： Parameters of a sample are measured using a model-based approach that utilizes the difference between experimental spectra acquired from the sample and experimental anchor spectra acquired from one or more reference samples at the same optical metrology tool. Anchor parameters of the one or more reference samples are determined using one or more reference optical metrology tools. The anchor spectrum is obtained and the target spectrum for the sample is acquired using the optical metrology tool. A differential experimental spectrum is generated based on a difference between the target spectrum and the anchor spectrum. The parameters for the sample are determined using the differential experimental spectrum and the anchor parameters, e.g., by comparing the differential experimental spectrum to a differential simulated spectrum, which is based on a difference between spectra simulated using a model having the parameters and a spectrum simulated using a model having the anchor parameters.

摘要翻译： 使用基于模型的方法测量样品的参数，该方法利用从样品获得的实验光谱与在相同光学计量学工具中从一个或多个参考样品获得的实验锚图谱之间的差异。 使用一个或多个参考光学测量工具确定一个或多个参考样本的锚参数。 获得锚定谱，并使用光学计量学工具获取样品的目标光谱。 基于目标光谱和锚谱之间的差异产生差分实验光谱。 使用差分实验光谱和锚参数来确定样品的参数，例如通过将差示实验光谱与差示模拟光谱进行比较，其基于使用具有参数的模型和光谱模拟模拟的光谱之间的差异 使用具有锚参数的模型。