Patent ID: 6781706
Filing Date: 2004-08-24
Classification: G01N,G06K,G06N

Abstract:
A multidomain process for evaluating parameters of a semiconductor wafer or wafer set comprising:generating measured data for multiple points on the semiconductor wafer or wafer set; defining multiple domains, wherein a domain has corresponding measured data; applying an iterative search method to each domain in order to generate a group of optimized semiconductor wafer parameter values for each domain, said iterative search method including: generating a plurality of sets of theoretical semiconductor wafer parameter values, and deriving a set of theoretical measurement data for each set of theoretical semiconductor wafer parameter values; associating different sets of theoretical semiconductor wafer parameter values with each domain; comparing a first set of theoretical measurement data, derived from a set of theoretical semiconductor wafer parameter values associated with a domain, to the measured data corresponding to the domain; and iteratively generating a new set of theoretical semiconductor wafer parameter values to be associated with the domain based on the comparing in a manner so as to associate increasingly more optimal theoretical semiconductor wafer parameter values with the domain, wherein the generation of the new set of theoretical semiconductor parameter values includes migrating at least one theoretical semiconductor parameter value from a set of theoretical semiconductor parameter values that has been associated with a different domain.