PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15869661
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2018-05
Patent Classification: ["356", "620000"]

Abstract:
Disclosed are a method, computer program and associated apparatuses for measuring a parameter of a lithographic process. The method comprising the steps of: obtaining first measurements comprising measurements of structural asymmetry relating to a plurality of first structures, each of said plurality of measurements of structural asymmetry corresponding to a different measurement combination of measurement radiation and a value for at least a first parameter; obtaining a plurality of second measurements of target asymmetry relating to a plurality of targets, each of said plurality of measurements of target asymmetry corresponding to one of said different measurement combinations, determining a relationship function describing the relationship between said first measurements and said second measurements, for each of said measurement combinations; determining, from said relationship function, a corrected overlay value, said corrected overlay value being corrected for structural contribution due to structural asymmetry in at least said first structure.

Claim (Index 1):
A method of measuring a parameter of a lithographic process, the method comprising:\n obtaining a plurality of first measurements, the first measurements comprising measurements of structural asymmetry relating to a plurality of first structures and the first measurements corresponding to different measurement combinations, differing in terms of at least measurement radiations; obtaining a plurality of second measurements, the second measurements comprising measurements of target asymmetry relating to a plurality of targets, each of the plurality of second measurements corresponding to one of the plurality of first measurements in terms of the measurement combination, each of the targets comprising one of the first structures and a second structure overlaid thereon, the target asymmetry comprising an overlay contribution which is independent of structural asymmetry, and a structural contribution due to structural asymmetry in at least the first structure; determining a relationship function describing the relationship between the first measurements and the second measurements, for each of the measurement combinations; and determining, from the relationship function, a corrected overlay value, the corrected overlay value being corrected for the structural contribution due to structural asymmetry in at least the first structure, wherein the overlay contribution which is independent of structural asymmetry comprises a contribution due to a known imposed bias and a contribution due to an overlay error.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 15.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.65
- Patent Class: 356.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15133866', '15013340', '15474803', '15038535', '15279860']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7447293920108775
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5674544262060925
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.727001895430399
- Mean Citation Score: 376.90062
- Max Citation Score: 458.8138
- Similarity Product: 420.95636484906686

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test