Did You Know...
...that in 1800 ether was first used by partyers as a fun diversion? Sniffing the gas led to hilarious and raucous laughter as people watched each other become more and more intoxicated and silly. Several doctors independently realized the value ether would have to anesthetize surgery patients. Of those who claimed rights to the "discovery," none had a happy ending. One had a seizure and died defending his rights. Another spent his life in an asylum because he had been denied acclaim. A third became addicted to chloroform and, in a New York City jail, he soaked a cloth in the drug, severed an artery and bled to death.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7846624 | Systems and methods for determination of focus and telecentricity, amelioration of metrology induced effects and application to determination of precision bossung curves An apparatus and method for the simultaneous determination of focus and source boresighting error for photolithographic steppers and scanners is described. A reticle containing custom arrays of box-in-box test structures specifically designed for performing source o... | 12/07/2010 |
| 7871004 | Method and apparatus for self-referenced wafer stage positional error mapping A wafer stage overlay error map is created using standard overlay targets and a special numerical algorithm. A reticle including a 2-dimensional array of standard overlay targets is exposed several times onto a photoresist coated silicon wafer using a photolithograp... | 01/18/2011 |
| 7871002 | Method and apparatus for self-referenced wafer stage positional error mapping Intra-field distortion for a projection imaging tool is determined using a self-referenced rectangular grid reticle pattern, that includes at least two arrays of alignment attributes that are complementary to each other, is exposed multiple times onto a substrate wi... | 01/18/2011 |
| 7697138 | Method and apparatus for determination of source polarization matrix A method and apparatus for resolving both the angular (nx,ny) and spatial (x,y) dependence of the effective source coherence matrix for lithographic steppers and scanners is described. First an in-situ source metrology instrument is combined with in-situ polarizatio... | 04/13/2010 |
| 7688426 | Method and apparatus for measurement of exit pupil transmittance A method and apparatus for determining the state of the lens transmittance of an optical projection system are described. A lens or imaging objective transmission is determined as a function of exit pupil transverse direction cosine (nx,ny) at multiple field points ... | 03/30/2010 |
| 7671979 | Apparatus and process for determination of dynamic lens field curvature A technique for the determination of dynamic lens field curvature uniquely associated with a photolithographic scanner is described. A series of lithographic exposures is performed on a resist coated silicon wafer using a photolithographic scanner. The lithographic ... | 03/02/2010 |
| 7598006 | Method and apparatus for embedded encoding of overlay data ordering in an in-situ interferometer A method and apparatus for embedded encoding of overlay data ordering in an in-situ interferometer is described. An in-situ interferometer is encoded, or augmented, with special or missing alignment attributes at desired positions. Exposing a sequence of the encoded... | 10/06/2009 |
| 7544449 | Method and apparatus for measurement of crossfield chromatic response of projection imaging systems A method and apparatus for measuring the chromatic response of lithographic projection imaging systems is described. An apparatus for determining the lens aberrations for a lithographic projection lens is provided. A substrate coated with a suitable recording media ... | 06/09/2009 |
| 7515250 | In-situ interferometer arrangement An in-situ interferometer includes an image modifying optic that produces light ray bundles. The light ray bundles are projected onto a reticle with a plurality of measurement fiducials encoded onto a face of the reticle. The measurement fiducials are exposed onto a... | 04/07/2009 |
| 7442951 | Reticle for use in rapid determination of average intrafield scanning distortion having transmissivity of a complementary alignment attribute being different than the transmissivity of at least one alignment attribute A method and apparatus for determining lens distortion in a projection imaging tool are described. The techniques include exposing at least one alignment attribute onto a substrate having a recording media. A complementary alignment attribute is also exposed onto th... | 10/28/2008 |
| 7381503 | Reference wafer calibration reticle An apparatus and method for manufacturing and using a calibrated registration reference wafer in a semiconductor manufacturing facility where an archive media includes etched alignment attributes. Exposing a pattern of complementary alignment attributes onto the arc... | 06/03/2008 |
| 7337552 | Method and apparatus for registration with integral alignment optics A method and apparatus for front to back substrate registration is described. Alignment characteristics of features on surfaces of substrates can be used to physically align substrates with a multiplicity of integrated alignment optics. Measurement of offsets of the... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7295291 | Apparatus and process for the determination of static lens field curvature A process for the determination of focal plane deviation uniquely due to the lens field curvature associated with a photolithographic projection tool is described. A series of lithographic exposures is performed on a resist coated silicon wafer using a stepper or sc... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7286208 | In-situ interferometer arrangement An in-situ interferometer includes an image modifying optic that produces light ray bundles. The light ray bundles are projected onto a reticle with a plurality of measurement fiducials encoded onto a face of the reticle. The measurement fiducials are exposed onto a... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7283202 | In-situ interferometer arrangement An in-situ interferometer includes an image modifying optic that produces light ray bundles. The light ray bundles are projected onto a reticle with a plurality of measurement fiducials encoded onto a face of the reticle. The measurement fiducials are exposed onto a... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7271905 | Method and apparatus for self-referenced wafer stage positional error mapping A wafer stage overlay error map is created using standard overlay targets and a special numerical algorithm. A reticle including a 2-dimensional array of standard overlay targets is exposed several times onto a photoresist coated silicon wafer using a photolithograp... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7268360 | Method and apparatus for self-referenced dynamic step and scan intra-field scanning distortion Techniques for determining wafer stage grid and yaw in a projection imaging tool are described. The techniques include exposing an overlay reticle onto a substrate having a recording media, thereby creating a plurality of printed fields on the substrate. The overlay... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7262398 | Method and apparatus for self-referenced dynamic step and scan intra-field scanning distortion A method and apparatus for determining lens distortion in a projection imaging tool are described. The techniques include exposing at least one alignment attribute onto a substrate having a recording media. A complementary alignment attribute is also exposed onto th... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7261985 | Process for determination of optimized exposure conditions for transverse distortion mapping A process for providing illumination source conditions for the accurate determination Zernike tilt coefficients in the presence of coma is described. Large feature-shift coma sensitivity is simulated for a range of illumination conditions. The resulting source sensi... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7261983 | Reference wafer and process for manufacturing same An apparatus and method for manufacturing and using a calibrated registration reference wafer in a semiconductor manufacturing facility where an archive media includes etched alignment attributes. Exposing a pattern of complementary alignment attributes onto the arc... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7160657 | Reference wafer and process for manufacturing same An apparatus and method for manufacturing and using a calibrated registration reference wafer in a semiconductor manufacturing facility. A reference reticle consisting of a 2-dimensional array of standard alignment attributes is exposed several times onto a photores... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7136144 | Method and apparatus for self-referenced dynamic step and scan intra-field lens distortion A reticle stage grid and yaw in a projection imaging tool is determined by exposing a first portion of a reticle pattern onto a substrate with a recording media thereby producing a first exposure. The first portion of the reticle pattern includes at least two arrays... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7126668 | Apparatus and process for determination of dynamic scan field curvature A process for the determination of focal plane deviation uniquely due to the scanning dynamics associated with a photolithographic scanner is described. A series of lithographic exposures is performed on a resist coated silicon wafer using a photolithographic scanne... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7099011 | Method and apparatus for self-referenced projection lens distortion mapping A projection lens distortion error map is created using overlay targets and a special numerical algorithm. A reticle including an array of overlay targets is exposed several times onto a photoresist coated silicon wafer using a photolithographic stepper. After expos... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7088427 | Apparatus and method for high resolution in-situ illumination source measurement in projection imaging systems An in-situ apparatus for high resolution imaging in lithographic steppers and scanners (machines) is described. It comprises a multiple field in-situ imaging objective that images the source directly onto the machine reticle or objective plane. The image on the wafe... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7053979 | Process for amelioration of scanning synchronization error Scanning synchronization error in a projection imaging system is controlled by obtaining one or more scanning synchronization error maps comprising a plurality of error components, obtaining one or more focal plane deviation (FPD) error maps comprising a plurality o... | 05/30/2006 |
| 6975382 | Method and apparatus for self-referenced dynamic step and scan intra-field lens distortion A reticle consisting of a 2-dimensional array of standard overlay targets is exposed several times onto a photoresist coated silicon wafer using a photolithographic scanner. Next, the overlay targets are measured for placement error using a conventional overlay metr... | 12/13/2005 |
| 6963390 | In-situ interferometer arrangement An in-situ interferometer includes an image modifying optic that produces light ray bundles. The light ray bundles are projected onto a reticle with a plurality of measurement fiducials encoded onto a face of the reticle. The measurement fiducials are exposed onto a... | 11/08/2005 |
| 6906780 | Method and apparatus for self-referenced dynamic step and scan intra-field lens distortion A reticle consisting of a 2-dimensional array of standard overlay targets is exposed several times onto a photoresist coated silicon wafer using a photolithographic scanner. Next, the overlay targets are measured for placement error using a conventional overlay metr... | 06/14/2005 |
| 6906303 | Method and apparatus for self-referenced dynamic step and scan intra-field scanning distortion A method and apparatus for determining the dynamic scanning distortion present in lithographic scanners. A special reticle pattern is exposed over the full field that is to be characterized. The wafer is then rotated 90 degrees and one or more exposures over the sam... | 06/14/2005 |
| 6899982 | Method and apparatus for proper ordering of registration data A photomask or reticle including a unique set of alignment attributes at separate and distinguishable field points is put in the reticle plane of a photolithographic projection system. The reticle pattern is exposed onto a resist coated wafer or substrate and proces... | 05/31/2005 |
| 6833221 | Method and apparatus for proper ordering of registration data A photomask or reticle including a unique set of alignment attributes at separate and distinguishable field points is put in the reticle plane of a photolithographic projection system. The reticle pattern is exposed onto a resist coated wafer or substrate and proces... | 12/21/2004 |
| 6741338 | In-situ source metrology instrument and method of use A process of measuring the radiant intensity profile of an effective source of a projection image system that has an effective source, an object plane, an imaging objective, an exit pupil, and an image plane. The improved process consists of selecting at least one f... | 05/25/2004 |
| 5705789 | Stabilization of parallel transport mirror system A beam scanning system and attached system of beam stabilization is utilized for ensuring the parallel transport of a scanned orthogonally deflected coherent light beam. A first scanning stage with right angle reflecting mirror scans the beam in the X-dir... | 01/06/1998 |
| 5702662 | Process for ablating high density vias in flexible substrate A apparatus and process for ablating a matrix of high density vias in a flexible substrate. The apparatus is cantilevered on a horizontal shelf from a partition where it can be rigidly supported. A vacuum container reciprocates towards and away from the p... | 12/30/1997 |
