Remote semiconductor microscopy

• US 6,859,760 B2
• Filed: 05/20/2003
• Issued: 02/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Dorough, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): TSAI, CAROL S W
• Application Number:
  US10/441,703
• Publication Number:
  US 20030208340A1
• Time in Patent Office: 644 Days
• Field of Search: 702 33- 36, 702/40, 702/58, 702/59, 702 81- 84, 702117-119, 702121-124, 702/126, 702/170, 702/172, 702/183, 702/184, 702/185, 702/188, 702/189, 702/198, 702FOR 103-104, 702/FOR.123, 702/FOR.125, 702/FOR.131, 702FOR 134-135, 702/FOR.137, 702/FOR.148, 702FOR 170-171, 382/141, 382/144, 382/145, 382/147, 382/149, 382/150, 382/155, 382/159, 356/237, 356/394, 348/87, 348/101, 348/125, 348/126, 709200-203, 709/206, 709217-219, 709227-229, 709/231, 709/232, 709/236, 709/237, 709/245, 707/10, 707200-203, 713/201, 713/202
• US Class Current: 702/188
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 21/365 Control or image processing arrangements for digital or video microscopes G02B21/361, G02B21/362 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/40 for data related to laboratory analysis, e.g. patient specimen analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 2237/2817 Pattern inspection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/854 Semiconductor sample

Abstract

A method and apparatus are described for remote semiconductor microscopy whereby video signals are broadcast from one or more microscopes to remote viewers. A live video signal is broadcast from the microscope over a network to remote personal computers located in the offices of process engineers. The office-based process engineers are provided real-time, or substantially real-time, views of a wafer, including peripheral views of the wafer outside cell array boundaries. The process engineer, in his office, can direct a technician, operating the microscope in the clean room complex, to display a desired cell region-of-interest with the microscope. As a result, the process engineers can more efficiently collaborate to solve process problems or even develop new process techniques.

Claims

1. A software system executing on a server of a semiconductor microscopy system in which a video signal generated by a microscope is digitized by a video capture system and communicated to a plurality of remote computing systems comprising:

a producer software module to retrieve the digitized video signal generated by the video capture system, wherein producer software module stores the digitized video signal within a software frame buffer;

a consumer software module to retrieve the digitized video signal from the software frame buffer and to process the digitized video signal for communication to one or more remote computing systems; and

a software synchronization mechanism to synchronize access to the frame buffer by the producer software module and consumer software modules.

2. The software system of claim 1, wherein the software system is implemented with object-oriented software.

3. The software system of claim 1, wherein the consumer software module compresses the digitized video signals.

4. The software system of claim 3, wherein the consumer software module inserts the compressed digitized video signals into a database.

5. The software system of claim 1, wherein the consumer software module compares a predefined threshold to statistical data of the processed digitized video signal in order to detect a change from a first frame to a successive frame.

6. The software system of claim 3, wherein the consumer software module retransmits a previously broadcast frame when the statistical data is below the predefined threshold.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the producer software module stores the digitized video signal representing one progressive scan of one of a scanning electron microscope and a scanning tunneling microscope.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein, the consumer software module to process the digitized video signal for communication to one or more remote computing systems is adapted to process the digitized video signal into an advanced streaming format.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the software synchronization mechanism is adapted to ensure that write operations and read operations are performed mutually exclusively.

28. The system of claim 1, wherein the producer software module operates a plurality of producer threads.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the consumer software module operates a plurality of consumer threads.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the software synchronization mechanism dynamically at run-time schedules processing of the producer threads and the consumer threads.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the number of producer threads is equal to the number of consumer threads.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the number of producer threads is equal to a number of the frame buffers.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein the number of producer threads is equal to a number of microscopes connected to a video capture system.

7. A system for inspecting a wafer using a plurality of remote computing systems comprising:

a computer comprising a processor, a memory, and a computer-readable medium operatively coupled together;

an operating environment executed by the processor from the computer-readable medium;

a video capture card coupled to the computer to digitize video signals generated by a microscope; and

a pair of producer and consumer software modules executing on the processor from the computer-readable medium, wherein the producer software module retrieves digitized video data from the video capture card and communicates the digitized video data to the consumer software module for communication to the remote computing systems.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the producer and consumer software modules are implemented with object-oriented software.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the consumer software module compresses the digitized video signals.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the consumer software module processes the digitized video signal and compares a predefined threshold to statistical data of the processed digitized video signal in order to detect a change from a first frame to a successive frame.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the consumer software module retransmits a previously broadcast frame to the remote client computers when the statistical data is below the predefined threshold.

12. A set of application program interfaces embodied on a computer-readable medium for execution on a server of a semiconductor microscopy system in which a video signal generated by a microscope is digitized by a video capture system and communicated to a plurality of remote client computers comprising:

a first interface to retrieve the digitized video signal generated by the video capture system and to store the digitized video signal within a software frame buffer; and

a second interface to retrieve the digitized video signal from the software frame buffer and to process the digitized video signal for communication to the remote client computers.

13. The set of application program interfaces of claim 12, wherein the second interface causes the server to stream the video signal to the remote client computers.

14. The set of application program interfaces of claim 12, wherein the second interface causes the server to communicate the digitized video signal over a wide area network.

15. The set of application program interfaces of claim 12, wherein the second interface causes the server to communicate the digitized video signal over the Internet.

16. The set of application program interfaces of claim 12, wherein the second interface causes the server to:

compare a predefined threshold to statistical data of the processed digitized video signal in order to detect a change from a first frame to a successive frame; and

retransmit the first frame instead of the successive frame as a function of the comparison.

17. The set of application program interfaces of claim 12, wherein the set of application program interfaces conforms to the Component Object Model (COM).

18. A software system executing on a server of a semiconductor microscopy system in which a video signal generated by a microscope is digitized by a video capture system and communicated to a plurality of remote computing systems comprising:

a producer software module to retrieve the digitized video signal generated by the video capture system, wherein the producer software module stores the digitized video signal within a software frame buffer, wherein the producer software module is adapted to receive remote commands and remotely control the video capture system;

a consumer software module to retrieve the digitized video signal from the software frame buffer and to process the digitized video signal for communication to one or more remote computing systems; and

a software synchronization mechanism to synchronize access to the frame buffer by the producer software module and consumer software modules.

19. The software system of claim 18, wherein the producer software module is adapted to receive electronic commands over a network from at least one client.

20. The software system of claim 18, wherein the consumer software module is adapted to compare successive video image frames.

21. The software system of claim 20, wherein the consumer software module only transmits the successive image with a change being detected during comparison of successive video image frames.

22. The software system of claim 20, wherein the consumer software module continues to transmit a previous video image frame with no change detected.

23. A software system executing on a server of a semiconductor microscopy system in which a video signal generated by a microscope is digitized by a video capture system and communicated to a plurality of remote computing systems comprising:

a producer software module to retrieve the digitized video signal generated by the video capture system, wherein producer software module stores the digitized video signal within a software frame buffer;

a consumer software module to retrieve the digitized video signal from the software frame buffer and to process the digitized video signal for communication to one or more remote computing systems, wherein the consumer software module compresses the digitized video signal, inserts the compressed digitized video signal into a database, compares a predefined threshold to statistical data of the processed digitized video signal in order to detect a change from a first frame to a successive frame, and retransmits a previously broadcast frame when the statistical data is below the predefined threshold; and

a software synchronization mechanism to synchronize access to the frame buffer by the producer software module and consumer software modules.

24. A software system executing on a server of a semiconductor microscopy system in which a video signal generated by a microscope is digitized by a video capture system and communicated to a plurality of remote computing systems comprising:

a producer software module implemented with object-oriented software to retrieve the digitized video signal generated by the video capture system, wherein producer software module stores the digitized video signal within a software frame buffer;

a consumer software module implemented with object-oriented software to retrieve the digitized video signal from the software frame buffer and to process the digitized video signal for communication to one or more remote computing systems, wherein the consumer software module compresses the digitized video signal, inserts the compressed digitized video signal into a database, compares a predefined threshold to statistical data of the processed digitized video signal in order to detect a change from a first frame to a successive frame, and retransmits a previously broadcast frame when the statistical data is below the predefined threshold; and

a software synchronization mechanism implemented with object-oriented software to synchronize access to the frame buffer by the producer software module and consumer software modules.