Patent ID: 7031848
Filing Date: 2006-04-18
Classification: G01B,G01N,G03F

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for analyzing the characteristics of a geometric feature formed on a sample comprising: a spectroscopic ellipsometer system operable to direct radiation having a plurality of wavelengths to reflect off the geometric feature and including a detector for measuring the reflected radiation, and being further operable to determine a change in magnitude or phase of the radiation, as a function of wavelength, and generate output signals corresponding thereto; and a processor system including a master processor and a plurality of slave processors arranged to process data in parallel, said processor system operable to generate a set of theoretical data at each of a plurality of wavelengths based on an assumption of the characteristics of the geometric feature, the processor system further operable to compare the set of theoretical data to normalized data derived from the output signals and modify the assumption of the characteristics based on results of the comparison in order to calculate a new set of theoretical data, the processor system operable to repeat the comparison and calculation steps to reduce differences between the set of theoretical data and the normalized data, the master processor operable to distribute at least a portion of the calculation of theoretical data to the slave processors in order for each slave processor to perform calculations at different wavelengths.