Patent ID: 6986280
Filing Date: 2006-01-17
Classification: G01N,G01Q,H01J

Abstract:
1. A method of using an integrated scatterometer and atomic force microscope to monitor a fabrication process, comprising: mounting a work piece in work piece holder in a single system that includes both an atomic force microscope and a scatterometer; measuring a feature in a test measurement area using the atomic force microscope; generating scatterometer library graphs using the atomic force microscope measurement as input to a library generation program; measuring a test measurement area on the work piece using the scatterometer and the generated library graphs to determine a measured parameter of the measurement area; and if the measured parameter fails to meet a specified criterion, measuring one or more features of the work piece using the atomic force microscope without removing the work piece from work piece holder of the single system, thereby allowing features in the area measured by the scatterometer to be readily measured on the atomic force microscope if the scatterometer results are outside of specification or indeterminate and allowing the atomic force microscope to provide input for the generation of accurate library graph for use with the scatterometer.