Bizarre Patents
A Christmas stocking having illumination means associated therewith for signalling the arrival of Santa Claus.
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8115928 | Box inspector A box inspector for detecting at an inspection station an unacceptable skew in, an item missing from, and/or an unacceptable gap in a box. The box inspector has pairs of aligned emitters and receivers generating a signal when an unacceptable skew is detected, at lea... | 02/14/2012 |
| 8072600 | Inspection method of circuit substrate An inspection method for a circuit substrate is disclosed, which inspects electrical properties of a circuit substrate having a multilayered structure, by controlling inspection environments so that dew forms on a surface of the circuit substrate and detecting chang... | 12/06/2011 |
| 7952713 | Bonding agent sticking inspection apparatus, mounting apparatus, and method of manufacturing electrical component A bonding agent sticking inspection apparatus includes a photographing section, a movement section, and a control section. The photographing section photographs an image of a substrate. The image includes a sticking expected range indicating a range in which a bondi... | 05/31/2011 |
| 7593103 | Light intensity measuring method and electronic device The present invention discloses a method for measuring an intensity of a part of an electromagnetic spectral range, and an electronic device implementing the method. The method comprises the steps of providing an electronic device comprising an optical device (10... | 09/22/2009 |
| 7580129 | Method and system for improving accuracy of critical dimension metrology A method for improving accuracy of optical critical dimension measurement of a substrate is provided. A process parameter that influences the refractive index and extinction coefficient of a thin film in the substrate is identified. A refractive index and extinction... | 08/25/2009 |
| 7561269 | Optical measurement system with systematic error correction An optical measurement system and wafer processing tool for correcting systematic errors in which a first diffraction spectrum is measured from a standard substrate including a layer having a known refractive index and a known extinction coefficient by exposing the ... | 07/14/2009 |
| 7557920 | Method and apparatus for auto-adjusting illumination A machine-vision system that provides changing and/or automatic adjustment of illumination angle, dispersion, intensity, and/or color of illumination. One such system includes a light source emitting polarized light, a machine-vision imager, an image processor opera... | 07/07/2009 |
| 7542140 | Detection method using electromagnetic wave and detection apparatus A detection apparatus includes a sample holding section, an irradiation means, a detection means, a calculation means, and an evaluation means. The irradiation means irradiates a substance held in the sample holding section with a THz wave. The detection unit detect... | 06/02/2009 |
| 7532328 | Circuit-pattern inspection apparatus The disclosed subject matter is related to a circuit pattern inspection apparatus for detecting a gradual changing of defect expanding over a large area of the semiconductor wafer. In order to detect a gradual changing of a defect related condition expanding over a ... | 05/12/2009 |
| 7525658 | System of correlating light measurements A system provides a correlation between a field-tested measured light transmission, light reflection and/or light absorption in at least one transparent, translucent or semi-opaque medium to a pre-set measured light transmission. ... | 04/28/2009 |
| 7440093 | Apparatus and methods for providing selective defect sensitivity Disclosed are techniques and apparatus for accounting for differing levels of defect susceptibility in different pattern areas of a reticle in an inspection of such reticle or in inspection of a semiconductor device fabricated from such reticle. In general terms, tw... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7433032 | Method and apparatus for inspecting defects in multiple regions with different parameters In a method of inspecting defects, a first actual region of an actual object is inspected based on a first characteristic parameter as an inspection condition. A point where an inspection region of the actual object is changed into a second actual region from the fi... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7421109 | Pattern inspection apparatus A pattern inspecting method, comprising preparing a sample having a first and a second inspection regions and an imaging device having a plurality of pixels, scanning the first inspection region to a first direction using the imaging device to obtain a first measure... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7417750 | Consecutive measurement of structures formed on a semiconductor wafer using an angle-resolved spectroscopic scatterometer Structures formed on a semiconductor wafer are consecutively measured by obtaining first and second measured diffraction signals of a first structure and a second structure formed abutting the first structure. The first and second measured diffraction signals were c... | 08/26/2008 |
| 7415149 | Pattern inspection apparatus A pattern inspection apparatus uses a die-to-database comparison method which compares detected pattern data obtained from an optical image of a pattern of a plate to be inspected with first reference pattern data obtained from designed pattern data in combination w... | 08/19/2008 |
| 7394084 | Method of generating image and illumination device for inspecting substrate For generating an image for inspection of a substrate, a camera is provided above this substrate with an optical axis orienting downward and a plurality of multi-colored light emitting members are set around the optical axis of the camera so as to be within a specif... | 07/01/2008 |
| 7373332 | Methods and apparatus for detecting temporal process variation and for managing and predicting performance of automatic classifiers Techniques for detecting temporal process variation and for managing and predicting performance of automatic classifiers applied to such processes using performance estimates based on temporal ordering of the samples are presented. ... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7369236 | Defect detection through image comparison using relative measures Inspection of objects such as semiconductor wafers can include comparisons of shapes between inspection and reference images. As part of the inspection process, relative values may be assigned to pixels within each image based on comparison of such pixels to neighbo... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7369224 | Surface inspection apparatus, surface inspection method and exposure system A surface inspection apparatus includes an illumination means for illuminating a pattern formed through a predetermined pattern forming process containing a process of exposure of a resist layer formed on a substrate having a periodicity with a linearly polarized li... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7365324 | Testing apparatus using charged particles and device manufacturing method using the testing apparatus A system for further enhancing speed, i.e. improving throughput in a SEM-type inspection apparatus is provided. An inspection apparatus for inspecting a surface of a substrate produces a crossover from electrons emitted from an electron beam source 25•1, th... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7365837 | Vision inspection apparatus using a full reflection mirror The present invention relates to a vision inspection apparatus and method using total reflection mirrors. The present invention provides a vision inspection apparatus using the total reflection mirrors comprising; a board position control module for fixing a printed... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7365862 | Methods and apparatus for inspecting an object A method for generating a mask for use with a light measurement system that includes a light source for projecting light onto an object, and an imaging sensor for receiving light reflected from the object. The method includes determining a profile of the object to b... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7359042 | Inspection system for limited access spaces A limited access space inspection system comprising: an imaging device for imaging a region in the limited access space, a mounting for mounting the imaging device to scan about the limited access space and a scanning control unit, associated with the imaging device... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7359043 | Pattern inspecting method and pattern inspecting apparatus A pattern inspecting method, comprising preparing a sample having a first and a second inspection regions and an imaging device having a plurality of pixels, scanning the first inspection region to a first direction using the imaging device to obtain a first measure... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7355681 | Optical proximity correction using chamfers and rounding at corners Disclosed is a method of optimizing a design to be formed on a substrate. The method includes approximating rounding of at least one corner of an image of the design; generating a representation of the design further to the approximate rounding of the at least one c... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7355692 | System and method for inspecting electrical circuits utilizing reflective and fluorescent imagery A method for inspecting an electrical circuit including optically inspecting at least a portion of an electrical circuit by detecting light reflected therefrom in a first image during a first time interval, optically inspecting light emitted from at least a portion ... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7353954 | Tray flipper and method for parts inspection Manufacturing lines include inspection systems for monitoring the quality of parts produced. Manufacturing lines for making semiconductor devices generally inspect each fabricated part. The information obtained is used to fix manufacturing problems in the semiconduc... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7352892 | System and method for shape reconstruction from optical images Reconstructing the shape of the surface of an object in greater than two dimensions is performed using a noise-tolerant reconstruction process and/or a multi-resolution reconstruction process. The noise-tolerant reconstruction process can be a Bayesian reconstructio... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7352456 | Method and apparatus for inspecting a substrate using a plurality of inspection wavelength regimes A surface inspection apparatus and method are disclosed. In particular, the method and apparatus are capable of inspecting a surface in two (or more) optical regimes thereby enhancing the defect detection properties of such method and apparatus. A method involves il... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7349575 | Pattern inspection method and apparatus, and pattern alignment method In a pattern inspection method, a master pattern serving as a reference and the continuous tone image of a pattern to be measured that is sensed by a camera are aligned. At least the position of a base in the continuous tone image of the pattern to be measured is de... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7349106 | Apparatus and method for thin-layer metrology An apparatus (1) and a method for thin-layer metrology of semiconductor substrates (16) are disclosed. The semiconductor substrates (16) are delivered or transported to the apparatus (1) by means of at least one cassette element. A measur... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7342681 | High-speed calibration method and system for an image-capture apparatus The present invention provides a calibration method and circuit for outputting an average calibration value used in an image-capture apparatus. The calibration circuit comprises difference means accepting a plurality of digital signals from capturing a pixel of a ca... | 03/11/2008 |
| 7339662 | Exposure apparatus and a device manufacturing method using the same A scanning type exposure apparatus includes a projection optical system which projects a pattern of a reticle onto a wafer, which is held by a wafer chuck, a scanning stage system which scanningly moves the reticle and the wafer synchronously with respect the projec... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7339661 | Dark field inspection system Apparatus for inspection of a sample includes a radiation source, which is adapted to direct optical radiation onto an area of a surface of the sample, and a plurality of image sensors. Each of the image sensors is configured to receive the radiation scattered from ... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7339672 | Solid-state image pickup device and signal reading method therefor A solid-state image pickup device has a photoelectric conversion part performing photoelectric conversion on incident light, a comparison part connected to an output terminal of the photoelectric conversion part to compare an output voltage of the photoelectric conv... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7339651 | Exposure equipment and related control method Exposure equipment adapted for use in the manufacture of semiconductor devices and a related control are disclosed. A wafer stage in the exposure equipment comprises an image sensor adapted to detect patterned light from the reticle. Image data corresponding to the ... | 03/04/2008 |
| 7336374 | Methods and apparatus for generating a mask A method for generating a mask for use with a light measurement system that includes a light source for projecting light onto a surface of an object, and an imaging system for receiving light reflected from the surface of the object. The method includes determining ... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7332708 | Optical encoder In an optical encoder, a plurality of light sources is controlled on and off so as to use light rays to irradiate an optical grating of a scale from a plurality of different directions. The light rays are received by a plurality of photoreceptor elements. Operations... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7333192 | Apparatus and method for inspecting defects A defect inspection apparatus includes an irradiation optical system 20, a detection optical system 30, and an image processor 40. In the irradiation optical system, a mirror 2603 is disposed to reflect downward a beam flux that has been ... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7330248 | Method and apparatus for inspecting defects In a defect inspecting apparatus, having contrast, brightness and appearance of a target for inspection and detection sensitivity of a defect changed depending on optical system conditions, and adapted to perform inspection by selecting an optimal test condition, ev... | 02/12/2008 |
