Patent ID: 11428642

Abstract:
An overlay metrology system may include an illumination sub-system to sequentially illuminate an overlay target with a first illumination lobe and a second illumination lobe opposite the first illumination lobe, where the overlay target includes grating-over-grating features formed from periodic structures on a first sample layer and a second sample layer. The system may further include an imaging sub-system to generate a first image and a second image of the overlay target. The first image includes an unresolved image of the grating-over-grating structures formed from a single non-zero diffraction order of the first illumination lobe. The second image includes an unresolved image of the one or more grating-over-grating structures formed from a single non-zero diffraction order of the second illumination lobe. The system may further include a controller to determine an overlay error between the first layer and the second layer based on the first image and the second image.