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US 2011/0085725 A1Published application
Wafer edge inspection and metrology
AssigneeRudolph Technologies, Inc.
InventorsAjay Pai, Tuan D. Le
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Abstract
Some aspects of the present invention relate to a wafer inspection method. A plurality of images is acquired about an edge portion of a wafer. Each of the images comprises a pixel array having a first dimension and a second dimension. A composite image of compressed pixel arrays is generated by compressing each of the pixel arrays in the first dimension and concatenating the pixel arrays. The composite image is analyzed to identify a wafer feature, for example using a sinusoidal line fit.
Claims4
An edge inspection system comprising:
- an edge sensor having an inspection area for acquiring a plurality of images about an edge portion of a wafer;
- an image acquisition module for receiving the acquired images, each of the images having a first dimension and a second dimension;
- a composite image module for generating a composite image of compressed images, the composite image module comprising:
- an image concatenating module for stitching the images;
- and
- an image compression module for compressing the images in the first dimension;
- and
- an image analysis module for analyzing the composite image to evaluate a wafer feature.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.