PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15922881
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-03
Publication Date: 2018-07
Patent Classification: ["355", "055000"]

Abstract:
A lithographic apparatus includes a number of sensors for measuring positions of features on a substrate prior to applying a pattern. Each sensor includes an imaging optical system. Position measurements are extracted from pixel data supplied by an image detector in each sensor. The imaging optical system includes one or more light field modulating elements and the processor processes the pixel data as a light-field image to extract the position measurements. The data processor may derive from each light-field image a focused image of a feature on the substrate, measuring positions of several features simultaneously, even though the substrate is not at the same level below all the sensors. The processor can also include corrections to reduce depth dependency of an apparent position of the feature include a viewpoint correction. The data processor can also derive measurements of heights of features on the substrate.

Claim (Index 9):
A device manufacturing method comprising applying patterns in successive layers on a substrate, and processing the substrate to produce functional device features, wherein the step of applying a pattern in at least one of the layers comprises:\n (a) measuring positions of features on the substrate in a lithographic apparatus, using at least one light-field imaging sensor; (b) extracting position measurements from light-field image data obtained using the sensor; and (c) controlling the lithographic apparatus to apply the pattern to the substrate using the positions measured by the alignment sensor.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 29.0
- Percentile: 90.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.88889
- Patent Class: 355.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15325048', '14322625', '12908564', '15736142', '14421434']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.6975286642732867
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5029938976580467
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.6780751876117628
- Mean Citation Score: 228.626602
- Max Citation Score: 332.79144
- Similarity Product: 300.8176698330832

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