Microscopic non-destructive measurement method of microstructure linewidth based on translation difference

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12190495-B2
Application number	US-202318681461-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 22, 2023
Priority date	Sep 22, 2022
Publication date	Jan 7, 2025
Grant date	Jan 7, 2025

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses a microscopic non-destructive measurement method of a microstructure linewidth based on a translation difference, based on a conventional microscopic imaging method, a high-precision displacement platform is used to move a to-be-measured sample, one microscopic image of the sample is acquired before and after the displacement separately, subtraction is performed on the two image to obtain a differential image, a light intensity distribution function of the differential image is derived, data fitting is performed on the differential image, and a high-precision sample linewidth measurement result is obtained by using the characteristic of a high differential pulse positioning resolution. The linewidth measurement method of the present disclosure retains the advantages of intuitiveness, quickness, and non-destructive measurement of the microscopic imaging method, breaks through the microscopic imaging diffraction limit, and reducing the impact of uneven illumination and imaging system noise, thereby improving the linewidth measurement accuracy

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A microscopic non-destructive measurement method of a microstructure linewidth based on a translation difference, comprising the following steps:
step 1: acquiring a microscopic image of a to-be-measured microstructure;
step 2: translating the microstructure in a linewidth direction by a short distance, and acquiring a microscopic image of the to-be-measured microstructure again;
step 3: performing subtraction on light intensities of the two acquired microscopic images to obtain a differential image;
step 4: performing data fitting on light intensity data of the differential image by using a Gaussian function as a target, and locating accurate positions of differential pulses on two sides by using Gaussian function extreme points; and
step 5: obtaining a high-precision linewidth measurement result according to the accurate positions of the extreme points on the two sides,
wherein the high-precision sample linewidth measurement result is obtained based on a distance between extreme points of a Gaussian pulse curve obtained by fitting, a positioning resolution of an extreme point is much higher than a system imaging resolution, uneven illumination only affects a pulse height and does not change a pulse position, and a distance between extreme points of two pulses is equal to a distance between sample step edges, that is, a linewidth.

2. The microscopic non-destructive measurement method of a microstructure linewidth based on a translation difference according to claim 1 , wherein the to-be-measured microstructure comprises a linear structure and a trench structure, and a scale thereof ranges from several microns to tens of microns.

3. The microscopic non-destructive measurement method of a microstructure linewidth based on a translation difference according to claim 2 , wherein for the translating the microstructure in a linewidth direction by a short distance, the translation distance is required to be far less than an optical resolution limit of an imaging system and controlled at a nanometer level.

4. The microscopic non-destructive measurement method of a microstructure linewidth based on a translation difference according to claim 3 , wherein the differential image is capable of being represented as being obtained through convolution of an object-plane differential function and a system point spread function.

5. The microscopic non-destructive measurement method of a microstructure linewidth based on a translation difference according to claim 4 , wherein fitting target Gaussian function is obtained by simplifying a microscopic imaging system point spread function, only a point spread function within a first dark ring of an Airy disk having obvious Gaussian distribution characteristics is considered, a position of an extreme point coincides with a position of a Gaussian function extreme point, and then the Gaussian function is used as the fitting target to simplify calculation.

Assignees

• Univ Nanjing Sci & Tech

Inventors

• Gao Zhishan
• Ma Jianqiu
• Yuan Qun
• Sun Yifeng
• Huo Xiao
• Wang Shumin
• Zhang Jiale
• Fan Xiaoxin

Classifications

• G06T2207/30108

  Industrial image inspection · CPC title

• G06T2207/20224

  Image subtraction · CPC title

• G06T2207/10056

  Microscopic image · CPC title

• G01N2021/8887

  based on image processing techniques · CPC title

• G01N21/8851 Primary

  Scan or image signal processing specially adapted therefor, e.g. for scan signal adjustment, for detecting different kinds of defects, for compensating for structures, markings, edges (G01N21/8806 and G01N21/93 - G01N21/95692 take precedence; optical measurement of dimensions G01B11/00; optical scanning G02B26/10; image transformation G06T3/00; computerised image enhancement G06T5/00; image processing per se for flaw detection G06T7/0002) · CPC title