Optics: measuring and testing – Inspection of flaws or impurities – Surface condition
Reexamination Certificate
2006-03-30
2009-08-18
Toatley, Jr., Gregory J (Department: 2877)
Optics: measuring and testing
Inspection of flaws or impurities
Surface condition
C702S076000, C700S110000, C438S016000
Reexamination Certificate
active
07576851
ABSTRACT:
A method of creating a library for measuring a plurality of damaged structures formed on a semiconductor wafer using optical metrology includes directing an incident beam on a first damaged structure. The first damaged structure was formed by modifying at least one process parameter in a dual damascene procedure. A diffracted beam is received from the first damaged structure. A measured diffraction signal is obtained based on the received diffracted beam. A first simulated diffraction signal is calculated. The first simulated diffraction signal corresponds to a hypothetical profile of the first damaged structure. The hypothetical profile includes an undamaged dielectric portion and a damaged dielectric portion. The measured diffraction signal is compared to the first simulated diffraction signal. If the measured diffraction signal and the first simulated diffraction signal match within a matching criterion, then the first simulated diffraction signal, the hypothetical profile of the first damaged structure, and an amount of dielectric damage corresponding to the damaged dielectric portion of the hypothetical profile are stored in a library.
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Funk Merritt
Lally Kevin
Sundararajan Radha
Morrison & Foerster / LLP
Slomski Rebecca C
Toatley Jr. Gregory J
Tokyo Electron Limited
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