Patent ID: 9281249
Filing Date: 2016-03-08
CPC Classification: G01B,G01N,G03F,H01L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: obtaining a measurement of thickness of a plurality of layers of a circuit structure, the thickness of the plurality of layers measured using an optical critical dimension (OCD) measurement technique, and the plurality of layers comprising a high-k layer and an interfacial layer; separately obtaining a measurement of thickness of the high-k layer, the thickness of the high-k layer measured using a separate measurement technique from the OCD measurement technique and providing greater decoupling, as compared to the OCD measurement technique, of a signal for thickness of the high-k layer from a signal for thickness of the interfacial layer; and ascertaining, by a hardware processor, a thickness of the interfacial layer using, in part, the separately obtained thickness measurement of the high-k layer, wherein the circuit structure comprises a fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) or a nanostructure, and wherein measurement of the thickness of the plurality of layers using the OCD measurement technique and measurement of the thickness of the high-k layer using the separate measurement technique are performed concurrently during fabrication of the FinFET or nanostructure.