Photo-sensor fiber-optic stress analysis system
AssigneeHyperNex, Inc.
InventorDavid S. Kurtz
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An x-ray diffraction system for determining stress in integrated circuit materials includes a source of x-rays (3) that are directed toward a sample holding mechanism for diffracting from the test sample (8). An x-ray detector (14) is arranged for detecting high back reflected diffracted x-ray intensity data representing stress in the test sample. A two-dimensional detection and storage arrangement (24) is arranged for detecting and storing the data representing stress in the test sample. A data processor (2) accesses the stored data from the two-dimensional detection and storage arrangement and processes the data representing stress in the test sample to determine stress in the test sample.
Claims20
A method for determining stress in a crystalline sample, the method comprising the steps of:
- a. diffracting an x-ray beam from a surface of the crystalline sample to multiple channels of an x-ray detector, the diffracted x-rays forming an x-ray image;
- b. detecting and converting the x-ray image to an intensity proportional visible light image;
- c. conveying the visible light image through a multi channel image preserving media to a two-dimensional CCD array, each part of the image being incident upon a different region of the two-dimensional CCD;
- d. storing relative magnitudes of intensities of the visible light image in pixels of the two-dimensional CCD array as quantities of electrical charge;
- e. converting the quantities of charge to a digitized representation of the visible light image and storing the digitized representation in a randomly accessible memory;
- f. binning pixels of the digitized representation into superpixels in a one dimensional digitized representation in the randomly accessible memory, the one-dimensional digitized representation including an identifiable angular location of an x-ray diffraction peak intensity;
- and
- g. determining stress in the crystalline sample by analyzing any shift of angular location of the x-ray diffraction peak intensity.
A method for determining a property of a material sample, wherein said property is selected from the group consisting of stress, composition, texture and dimensional characteristics, such method comprising the steps of:
- a. diffracting an x-ray beam from a surface of the material sample to multiple channels of an x-ray detector, the diffracted x-rays forming an x-ray image;
- b. detecting and converting the x-ray image to an intensity proportional visible light image;
- c. conveying the visible light image through a multi channel image preserving media to a two-dimensional photosensor array, each part of the image being incident upon a different region of the two-dimensional photosensor array;
- d. storing relative magnitudes of intensities of the visible light image in pixels of the two-dimensional photosensor array as quantities of electrical charge;
- e. converting the quantities of charge to a digitized representation of the visible light image and storing the digitized representation in a randomly accessible memory;
- f. binning pixels of the digitized representation into superpixels in a one dimensional digitized representation in the randomly accessible memory, the one-dimensional digitized representation including an identifiable angular location of an x-ray diffraction peak intensity;
- and
- g. determining said property in the material sample by analyzing any shift of angular location of the x-ray diffraction peak intensity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.