PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16185062
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-11
Publication Date: 2019-03
Patent Classification: ["355", "067000"]

Abstract:
In a dark-field metrology method using a small target, a characteristic of an image of the target, obtained using a single diffraction order, is determined by fitting a combination fit function to the measured image. The combination fit function includes terms selected to represent aspects of the physical sensor and the target. Some coefficients of the combination fit function are determined based on parameters of the measurement process and/or target. In an embodiment the combination fit function includes jinc functions representing the point spread function of a pupil stop in the imaging system.

Claim (Index 50):
An inspection apparatus comprising:\n an illumination system configured to illuminate a target structure formed on an object by a lithographic process, under certain illumination conditions; an imaging system configured to form an image of the target structure using a certain portion of radiation diffracted by the target structure under the illumination conditions; a measuring system configured to measure the image; and a processor configured to determine a value of at least one coefficient of a combination fit function using pixel values of a region of interest in the detected image, wherein the value of the coefficient is indicative of a property of the lithographic process, and wherein the combination fit function has at least one coefficient based on a characteristic or parameter (i) of the target structure, (ii) of the inspection apparatus, (iii) of illumination of the target structure, the formation of the image and/or the measurement of the image, and/or (iv) of the lithographic process.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 32.0
- Percentile: 98.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.75439
- Patent Class: 355.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15115229', '14839325', '15473879', '14906896', '15808874']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.710934660437839
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5047103708131288
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.690312231475368
- Mean Citation Score: 267.849458
- Max Citation Score: 337.7562
- Similarity Product: 308.35900520017145

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 0
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 0
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test