Determining a critical dimension variation of a pattern

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11276160-B2
Application number	US-201816652970-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 1, 2018
Priority date	Oct 2, 2017
Publication date	Mar 15, 2022
Grant date	Mar 15, 2022

Abstract

A captured image of a pattern and a reference image of the pattern may be received. A contour of interest of the pattern may be identified. One or more measurements of a dimension of the pattern may be determined for each of the reference image and the captured image with respect to the contour of interest of the pattern. A defect associated with the contour of interest may be classified based on the determined one or more measurements of the dimension of the pattern for each of the reference image and the captured image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a captured image of a pattern;
receiving a reference image of the pattern;
identifying a contour of interest of the pattern;
determining, by a processing device, one or more measurements of a dimension of the pattern for each of the reference image and the captured image with respect to the contour of interest of the pattern, wherein determining the one or more measurements of the dimension of the pattern comprises:
determining a first plurality of measurements each corresponding to a distance from a particular point of a pattern to a respective point along the contour of interest of the pattern in the captured image; and
determining a second plurality of measurements each corresponding to a distance from a particular point of the pattern to a respective point along the contour of interest of the pattern in the reference image; and

classifying a defect associated with the contour of interest based on the determined one or more measurements of the dimension of the pattern for each of the reference image and the captured image.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the contour of interest corresponds to a location of a modification to the pattern that is associated with the defect.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of points along the contour of interest are associated with different directions from the particular point of the pattern to the contour of interest.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
determine a critical dimension parameter value for each respective point along the contour of interest based on a pair of measurements from the first and second plurality of measurements.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the defect is classified based on the critical dimension parameter value having a maximum difference between a respective measurement from the first plurality of measurements associated with the captured image and another respective measurement from the second plurality of measurements associated with the reference image.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more measurements are determined based on a distance transform function.

7. A system comprising:
a memory; and
a processing device, operatively coupled with the memory, to:
receive a captured image of a pattern;
receive a reference image of the pattern;
identify a contour of interest of the pattern;
determine one or more measurements of a dimension of the pattern for each of the reference image and the captured image with respect to the contour of interest of the pattern by determining a first plurality of measurements each corresponding to a distance from a particular point of a pattern to a respective point along the contour of interest of a pattern in the captured image, and determining a second plurality of measurements each corresponding to a distance from a particular point of the pattern to a respective point along the contour of interest of the pattern in the reference image; and
classify a defect associated with the contour of interest based on the determined one or more measurements of the dimension of the pattern for each of the reference image and the captured image.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the contour of interest corresponds to a location of a modification to the pattern that is associated with the defect.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of points along the contour of interest are associated with different directions from the particular point of the pattern to the contour of interest.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processing device is further to:
determine a critical dimension parameter value for each respective point along the contour of interest based on a pair of measurements from the first and second plurality of measurements.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the defect is classified based on the critical dimension parameter value having a maximum difference between a respective measurement from the first plurality of measurements associated with the captured image and another respective measurement from the second plurality of measurements associated with the reference image.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the one or more measurements are determined based on a distance transform function.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:
receiving a captured image of a pattern;
receiving a reference image of the pattern;
identifying a contour of interest of the pattern;
determining one or more measurements of a dimension of the pattern for each of the reference image and the captured image with respect to the contour of interest of the pattern by determining a first plurality of measurements each corresponding to a distance from a particular point of a pattern to a respective point along the contour of interest of a pattern in the captured image, and determining a second plurality of measurements each corresponding to a distance from a particular point of the pattern to a respective point along the contour of interest of the pattern in the reference image; and
classifying a defect associated with the contour of interest based on the determined one or more measurements of the dimension of the pattern for each of the reference image and the captured image.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the contour of interest corresponds to a location of a modification to the pattern that is associated with the defect.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the plurality of points along the contour of interest are associated with different directions from the particular point of the pattern to the contour of interest.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining a critical dimension parameter value for each respective point along the contour of interest based on a pair of measurements from the first and second plurality of measurements.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the defect is classified based on the critical dimension parameter value having a maximum difference between a respective measurement from the first plurality of measurements associated with the captured image and another respective measurement from the second plurality of measurements associated with the reference image.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Israel Ltd

Inventors

• Vereschagin Vadim
• Kris Roman
• Schwarzband Ishai
• Cohen Boaz
• SHKALIM Ariel
• Bal Evgeny

Classifications

• G06T7/12

  Edge-based segmentation · CPC title

• G06T7/001 Primary

  using an image reference approach · CPC title

• G06T2207/30148

  Semiconductor; IC; Wafer · CPC title

• G06T7/60

  Analysis of geometric attributes · CPC title

• G06T7/13

  Edge detection · CPC title