Methods and systems for regularizing the optimization of application specific semiconductor measurement system parameter settings

A system comprising:

• a metrology tool including an illumination source and a detector configured to collect a first amount of actual measurement data from measurements of one or more semiconductor structures disposed on a first wafer in accordance with a set of optimized measurement system parameter values;
• and
• a computing system configured to:
• generate measurement data associated with a first plurality of measurements of at least one semiconductor structure having known values of one or more parameters of interest, the first plurality of measurements each having different values of one or more measurement system parameters;
• estimate values of the one or more parameters of interest associated with the at least one semiconductor structure based on the measurement data and a measurement model;
• determine a sensitivity of a value of each of the one or more parameters of interest to changes of value of each of the one or more measurement system parameters at each of the different values of the one or more measurement system parameters;
• and
• determine the set of optimized measurement system parameter values based on an optimization of a regularized cost function including the determined sensitivities.

A system comprising:

• a metrology tool including an illumination source and a detector configured to collect a first amount of actual measurement data from measurements of one or more semiconductor structures disposed on a first wafer in accordance with a set of optimized measurement system parameter values;
• and
• a non-transitory, computer-readable medium including instructions that when executed by one or more processors of a computing system cause the computing system to:
• generate measurement data associated with a first plurality of measurements of at least one semiconductor structure having known values of one or more parameters of interest, the first plurality of measurements each having different values of one or more measurement system parameters;
• estimate values of the one or more parameters of interest associated with the at least one semiconductor structure based on the measurement data and a measurement model;
• determine a sensitivity of a value of each of the one or more parameters of interest to changes of value of each of the one or more measurement system parameters at each of the different values of the one or more measurement system parameters;
• and
• determine the set of optimized measurement system parameter values based on an optimization of a regularized cost function including the determined sensitivities.