Patent Document ID: 20040172202
Application ID: 10791256
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A multidomain method for evaluating parameters of a semiconductor wafer or wafer set comprising: identifying a group of semiconductor wafer parameters-to be evaluated; mapping the semiconductor wafer parameters into at least one genotype, said genotype comprising a collection of genes, each gene corresponding to a selected one of the group of semiconductor wafer parameters to be evaluated; defining more than one domain as a collection of genotypes, each domain with its own population of genotypes; deriving a set of theoretical data for each genotype; inspecting the semiconductor wafer or wafer set using a beam of radiation and generating therefrom sets of measured data; comparing a set of measured data to a corresponding set of derived theoretical data for each genotype in each domain in order to determine a level of fitness for each genotype; migrating genotypes among the domains by selecting at least one genotype from a current domain population and adding it to the population of a different domain; evolving a next population for each domain by selecting at least one genotype from the current population based on the fitness level of the genotype and performing a genetic operation on the at least one genotype, thereby creating at least one new genotype and adding the at least one new genotype to the next population; and repeating the comparing, migrating, and evolving steps so that for each domain the fittest genotype becomes increasingly more fit.