Patent Document ID: 9646220
Application ID: 14088824
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of determining an average contour of a patterned feature of a wafer, the method comprising: providing, at a computer system, a reference contour corresponding to the patterned feature to be measured on the wafer; providing, at the computer system, a plurality of images of the patterned feature; extracting from the plurality of images, with the computer system, a plurality of extracted contours that represent the patterned feature; generating edge placement error (EPE) information for each extracted contour with respect to the reference contour; eliminating flyers from the plurality of extracted contours with the computer system based on the EPE information by removing EPE information of portions of the extracted contours that deviate from an expected EPE information by more than a specified amount; and generating, with the computer system, the average contour of the patterned feature based on the extracted contours remaining after elimination of the flyers.