Patent Document ID: 20150029498
Application ID: 14278277
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of inspecting a photolithographic reticle, the method comprising: performing a first single-die inspection of a reticle that is has been identified as being within specifications so as to generate a plurality of baseline events corresponding to a plurality of unusual baseline features of the reticle, wherein each baseline event indicates a location and a size value for a corresponding unusual baseline feature; after using the reticle in one or more photolithography processes, performing via a reticle inspection tool a second single-die inspection of the reticle so as to generate a plurality of current events corresponding to a plurality of current unusual features of the reticle, wherein each current event indicates a location and a size value for a corresponding current unusual feature; and generating an inspection report of a plurality of candidate reticle defects and their images, wherein the candidate defects include a first subset of the current events and their corresponding plurality of candidate defect images and exclude a second subset of the current events and their corresponding plurality of excluded images, wherein each of the first subset of events included in the inspection report has a location and size value that fails to match any baseline event's location and size value by a predefined amount, and each of the second subset of events excluded from the inspection report has a location and size value that matches any baseline event's location and size value by the predefined amount.