Patent ID: 11933717
Assignee: KLA CORPORATION
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G

Claim 11:
12. A metrology system comprising:
a multi-channel imaging sub-system comprising:
an illumination source;
one or more illumination optics configured to direct illumination from the illumination source to a sample;
one or more collection optics configured to collect light emanating from the sample in response to the illumination from the illumination source; and
a detector configured to generate two or more images of the sample in an exposure window, wherein the detector comprises a time delay integration (TDI) sensor including multiple pixel rows, wherein a sample stage is configured to translate the sample along a scan direction perpendicular to the pixel rows at a charge transfer rate of the TDI sensor, wherein a switching time between successive N optical configurations of the multi-channel imaging sub-system corresponds to the charge transfer rate of the TDI sensor; and

a controller communicatively coupled to the detector, the controller including one or more processors configured to execute program instructions causing the one or more processors to:
generate one or more drive signals for at least one of the illumination source, the one or more illumination optics, the one or more collection optics, or the detector to sequentially cycle through N optical configurations of the multi-channel imaging sub-system within the exposure window of the detector, wherein N is an integer greater than one, wherein the detector generates N images of the sample during a readout phase associated with the exposure window, wherein a particular image of the N images corresponds to a particular optical configuration of the N optical configurations; and
generate metrology data associated with the sample based on the N images of the sample.