Method and system for correlating optical images with scanning electron microscopy images
First Claim
1. A method for correlating optical images with scanning electron microscopy images comprising:
- acquiring one or more full optical images of a sample by scanning the sample with an optical inspection sub-system;
storing the one or more full optical images;
identifying a location of one or more features-of-interest present in the one or more acquired full optical images with one or more additional sources different from the optical inspection sub-system, wherein the one or more additional sources include at least one of an electron beam inspector, an electronic-test tool or design data stored in memory;
upon the identifying the location of one or more features-of-interest, acquiring one or more scanning electron microscopy images of a portion of the sample including the one or more features-of-interest at the identified location with a scanning electron microscopy tool and acquiring one or more image portions of the one or more full optical images including the one or more features-of-interest at the location identified by the one or more additional sources, the one or more image portions including one or more reference structures;
upon acquiring one or more scanning electron microscopy images of a portion of the sample and one or more image portions of the one or more full optical images including the one or more features-of-interest, correlating the one or more image portions and the one or more scanning electron microscopy images based on the presence of at least one of the one or more features-of-interest and the one or more reference structures in both the one or more image portions and the one or more scanning electron microscopy images;
transferring a location of the one or more features-of-interest in the one or more scanning electron microscopy images into the coordinate system of the one or more image portions of the one or more full optical images to form one or more corrected optical images;
processing the one or more corrected optical images with a plurality of feature-of-interest detection procedures; and
determining a sensitivity of the optical inspection sub-system to the one or more features-of-interest for at least some of the feature-of-interest detection procedures, wherein the sensitivity is a metric indicative of the effectiveness of the one or more features-of-interest detection procedures in detecting the one or more features-of-interest.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The correlation of optical images with SEM images includes acquiring a full optical image of a sample by scanning the sample with an optical inspection sub-system, storing the full optical image, identifying a location of a feature-of-interest present in the full optical image with an additional sources, acquiring an SEM image of a portion of the sample that includes the feature at the identified location with a SEM tool, acquiring an optical image portion at the location identified by the additional source, the image portions including a reference structure, correlating the image portion and the SEM image based on the presence of the feature-of-interest and the reference structure in both the image portions and the SEM image, and transferring a location of the feature-of-interest in the SEM image into the coordinate system of the image portion of the full optical image to form a corrected optical image.
32 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method for correlating optical images with scanning electron microscopy images comprising:
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acquiring one or more full optical images of a sample by scanning the sample with an optical inspection sub-system; storing the one or more full optical images; identifying a location of one or more features-of-interest present in the one or more acquired full optical images with one or more additional sources different from the optical inspection sub-system, wherein the one or more additional sources include at least one of an electron beam inspector, an electronic-test tool or design data stored in memory; upon the identifying the location of one or more features-of-interest, acquiring one or more scanning electron microscopy images of a portion of the sample including the one or more features-of-interest at the identified location with a scanning electron microscopy tool and acquiring one or more image portions of the one or more full optical images including the one or more features-of-interest at the location identified by the one or more additional sources, the one or more image portions including one or more reference structures; upon acquiring one or more scanning electron microscopy images of a portion of the sample and one or more image portions of the one or more full optical images including the one or more features-of-interest, correlating the one or more image portions and the one or more scanning electron microscopy images based on the presence of at least one of the one or more features-of-interest and the one or more reference structures in both the one or more image portions and the one or more scanning electron microscopy images; transferring a location of the one or more features-of-interest in the one or more scanning electron microscopy images into the coordinate system of the one or more image portions of the one or more full optical images to form one or more corrected optical images; processing the one or more corrected optical images with a plurality of feature-of-interest detection procedures; and determining a sensitivity of the optical inspection sub-system to the one or more features-of-interest for at least some of the feature-of-interest detection procedures, wherein the sensitivity is a metric indicative of the effectiveness of the one or more features-of-interest detection procedures in detecting the one or more features-of-interest. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for correlating optical images with scanning electron microscopy images comprising:
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acquiring one or more full optical images of a sample by scanning the sample with an optical inspection sub-system; storing the one or more full optical images; identifying a location of one or more features-of-interest present in the one or more acquired full optical images with one or more additional sources different from the optical inspection sub-system, wherein the one or more additional sources include at least one of an electron beam inspector, an electronic-test tool or design data stored in memory; upon the identifying the location of one or more features-of-interest, acquiring one or more scanning electron microscopy images of a portion of the sample including the one or more features-of-interest at the identified location with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) tool and acquiring one or more image portions of the one or more full optical images including the one or more features-of-interest at the location identified by the one or more additional sources, the one or more image portions including one or more reference structures; upon acquiring one or more scanning electron microscopy images of a portion of the sample and one or more image portions of the one or more full optical images including the one or more features-of-interest, scaling at least one of the one or more image portions and the one or more scanning electron microscopy images in order to substantially match the resolution of the one or more image portions with the resolution of the one or more scanning electron microscopy images; correlating the resolution matched one or more image portions and the one or more scanning electron microscopy images based on the presence of at least one of the one or more features-of-interest and the one or more reference structures in both the one or more image portions and the one or more scanning electron microscopy images; transferring a location of the one or more features-of-interest in the one or more scanning electron microscopy images into the coordinate system of the one or more image portions of the one or more full optical images to form one or more corrected optical images; processing the one or more corrected optical images with a plurality of feature-of-interest detection procedures; and determining a sensitivity of the optical inspection sub-system to the one or more features-of-interest for at least some of the feature-of-interest detection procedures, wherein the sensitivity is a metric indicative of the effectiveness of the one or more features-of-interest detection procedures in detecting the one or more features-of-interest. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A system for correlating optical images with scanning electron microscopy images comprising:
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an optical inspection sub-system for acquiring one or more optical inspection images from a surface of a wafer; a scanning electron microscopy tool for acquiring one or more measurement inspection images from the surface of the wafer; and a controller communicatively coupled to at least one of the optical inspection sub-system and scanning electron microscopy tool, the controller including one or more processors configured to execute a set of programmed instructions, the programmed instructions configured to cause the one or more processors to; acquire one or more full optical images of a sample by scanning the sample with the optical inspection sub-system; store the one or more full optical images in one or more memory units; identify a location of one or more features-of-interest present in the one or more acquired full optical images with one or more additional sources different from the optical inspection sub-system, wherein the one or more additional sources include at least one of an electron beam inspector, an electronic-test tool or design data stored in memory; upon the identifying the location of one or more features-of-interest, acquire one or more scanning electron microscopy images of a portion of the sample including the one or more features at the identified location with the scanning electron microscopy tool and acquire one or more image portions of the one or more full optical images including the one or more features-of-interest at the location identified by the one or more additional sources, the one or more image portions including one or more reference structures; store the one or more scanning electron microscopy images in the one or more memory units; upon acquiring one or more scanning electron microscopy images of a portion of the sample and one or more image portions of the one or more full optical images including the one or more features-of-interest, correlate the one or more image portions and the one or more scanning electron microscopy images based on the presence of at least one of the one or more features-of-interest and the one or more reference structures in both the one or more image portions and the one or more scanning electron microscopy images; transfer a location of the one or more features-of-interest in the one or more scanning electron microscopy images into the coordinate system of the one or more image portions of the one or more full optical images to form one or more corrected optical images; process the one or more corrected optical images with a plurality of feature-of-interest detection procedures; and determine a sensitivity of the optical inspection sub-system to the one or more features-of-interest for at least some of the feature-of-interest detection procedures, wherein the sensitivity is a metric indicative of the effectiveness of the one or more features-of-interest detection procedures in detecting the one or more features-of-interest. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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Specification