Patent ID: 7765234

Claim:
A method of managing data flow in generating different signal formats for use in optical metrology, the method comprising: creating a project data object; creating a first option data object having a set of signal parameters, wherein different settings of the set of signal parameters correspond to different signal formats for diffraction signals; associating a version number with the first option data object; linking the first option data object with the project data object; creating at least a second option data object having a set of signal parameters, wherein different settings of the set of signal parameters correspond to different signal formats for diffraction signals, wherein the set of signal parameters of the first option data object and the set of signal parameters of the second option data object are set differently; associating another version number with the second option data object; linking the second option data object with the project data object; storing the project data object, the first option data object, and the second option data object; storing the version numbers associated with the first option data object and the second option data object; storing the link between the first option data object and the project data object; and storing the link between the second option data object and the project data object.