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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8094925 | Method for increasing the accuracy of the positioning of a first object relative to a second object A method is provided for increasing the accuracy of the positioning of a first object relative to a second object. The method overcomes the disadvantageous influence of thermal drift between a first and a second object during a positioning of a first object on a sec... | 01/10/2012 |
| 8090192 | Pattern misalignment measurement method, program, and semiconductor device manufacturing method A pattern misalignment measurement method includes acquiring an inspection image of a composite pattern formed by superposing a plurality of kinds of element patterns on each other, acquiring reference images of at least two kinds of element patterns from reference ... | 01/03/2012 |
| 8068664 | Component sensor for pick and place machine using improved shadow imaging A method of sensing a component held by a nozzle of a pick and place machine is provided. The method includes engaging a source of illumination and recording a reference background image when no component is held by the nozzle. Then, a component is adhered to the no... | 11/29/2011 |
| 8050490 | Method for inspecting overlay shift defect during semiconductor manufacturing and apparatus thereof A method of inspecting for overlay shift defects during semiconductor manufacturing is disclosed. The method can include the steps of providing a charged particle microscopic image of a sample, identifying an inspection pattern period in the charged particle microsc... | 11/01/2011 |
| 8045790 | Method for automatically de-skewing of multiple layer wafer for improved pattern recognition A method for processing wafers includes learning a first pattern at a de-skew site on a first wafer layer, saving the first patterns in a recipe for de-skewing wafers, learning a second pattern at the de-skew site a second wafer layer, and saving the second pattern ... | 10/25/2011 |
| 8009896 | Coplanarity inspection device for printed circuit boards A coplanarity inspection device for a printed circuit board includes a base, a supporting disk, a driver, a printed circuit board, a light source, an image acquisition means, and a controller. The supporting disk is arranged on the base, and the driver rotates the s... | 08/30/2011 |
| 7995833 | Method of alignment for efficient defect review An inspection system includes a SEM visual inspection apparatus for detecting a defect in a semiconductor sample in steps of manufacturing a semiconductor device and a review apparatus for observing, at a high resolution, the defect in the semiconductor sample detec... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7991218 | Pattern matching apparatus and semiconductor inspection system using the same Solving means is configured of a signal input interface, a data calculation unit, and a signal output interface. The signal input interface allows image data which is obtained by photographing hole patterns, and CAD data which corresponds to hole patterns included i... | 08/02/2011 |
| 7991219 | Method and apparatus for detecting positions of electrode pads A method for detecting positions of a plurality of electrode pads of semiconductor chips formed on a semiconductor wafer includes: setting an imaging target region greater than a semiconductor chip on the semiconductor wafer; performing split imaging so as to entire... | 08/02/2011 |
| 7983472 | Position detecting method A method detects a position of a mark based on an image signal of the mark. The method includes steps of obtaining a first position of the mark by performing a first process for the image signal, extracting plural feature values from the image signal based on the fi... | 07/19/2011 |
| 7945087 | Alignment of printed circuit board targets A method for micromachining a material, including configuring an optical system to provide illumination of an illumination wavelength to a site via a given element of the optical system, the illumination generating returning radiation from the site. The method furth... | 05/17/2011 |
| 7925076 | Inspection apparatus using template matching method using similarity distribution An inspection apparatus performing template matching of a search image capable of outputting a correct matching position even if a pattern similar to a template exists in the search image is provided. The inspection apparatus includes a template cutout means for cut... | 04/12/2011 |
| 7894660 | Image processing alignment method and method of manufacturing semiconductor device An alignment mark is arranged to be within an image screen and the alignment mark is formed with rectangular patterns having varied dimensions from each other. The signal waveforms from each of the rectangular patterns are measured. The number of the rectangular pat... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7894659 | Methods for accurate identification of an edge of a care area for an array area formed on a wafer and methods for binning defects detected in an array area formed on a wafer Methods for identifying an edge of a care area for an array area formed on a wafer and/or for binning defects detected in the array area are provided. One method for identifying an edge of a care area for an array area formed on a wafer includes determining a value ... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7873206 | Registration detection system A registration detection system performing registration-detecting each substrate in a lot without lowering an original throughput of a lithography system and maintaining high accuracy usable for the correction of an exposure process. Therefore, registration detectio... | 01/18/2011 |
| 7844103 | Microscopic inspection apparatus for reducing image smear using a pulsed light source and a linear-periodic superpositioned scanning scheme to provide extended pulse duration, and methods useful therefor An automated optical inspection system includes a pulsed light source illuminating an article to be inspected thereby to generate at least one image thereof, at least one camera having a field of view, and a relative motion provider operative to provide relative mot... | 11/30/2010 |
| 7817846 | Method of correcting bonding coordinates using reference bond pads A method of correcting bonding coordinates according to locations of a die and leads loaded for bonding is provided. The method includes searching for locations of die recognition areas and lead recognition areas, comparing the detected locations of the recognition ... | 10/19/2010 |
| 7813542 | Wafer aligning apparatus and related method Embodiments of the invention provide a wafer aligning apparatus and a wafer aligning method. In one embodiment, the wafer aligning apparatus comprises an imaging unit adapted to take an image of a wafer being transferred from a load lock chamber to a transfer chambe... | 10/12/2010 |
| 7809181 | Pattern inspection apparatus, image alignment method, displacement amount estimation method, and computer-readable recording medium with program recorded thereon A pattern inspection apparatus includes a first unit configured to acquire an optical image of pattern, a second unit configured to generate a reference image to be compared, a third unit configured to calculate elements of a normal matrix for a least-squares method... | 10/05/2010 |
| 7804994 | Overlay metrology and control method An overlay method for determining the overlay error of a device structure formed during semiconductor processing is disclosed. The overlay method includes producing calibration data that contains overlay information relating the overlay error of a first target at a ... | 09/28/2010 |
| 7760931 | Apparatus and method for measuring at least one of arrangement and shape of shots on substrate, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method An apparatus for measuring at least one of an arrangement and shape of shots formed on a substrate, comprises a scope configured to obtain an image of an alignment mark corresponding to a shot; and a calculating device configured to calculate a difference between a ... | 07/20/2010 |
| 7734084 | Method and system for offset estimation and alignment A method for determining an offset vector. The method includes obtaining an image of a first feature. An image of a second feature is also obtained. Also, a combination image of the first feature and the second feature is obtained. A plurality of composite images is... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7724942 | Optical aberration correction for machine vision inspection systems A high-accuracy optical aberration correction system and method. Z-heights determined by an auto-focus tool, which would otherwise vary depending on the orientation angle of surface features or edges in the focus region of interest, and on the location of the focus ... | 05/25/2010 |
| 7711178 | Pattern inspection method and its apparatus A pattern inspection method including: sequentially imaging plural chips formed on a substrate; selecting a pattern which is suitable for calculating position gap between an inspection image of a subject chip and reference image stored in memory from an image of a f... | 05/04/2010 |
| 7672502 | Substrate positioning device, substrate positioning method and program Noise reduction processing for detecting the circumferential edge of a wafer W placed on a rotary stage with a light-transmitting sensor, obtaining detection values provided by the light-transmitting sensor as substrate edge shape data, detecting sudden abnormal dat... | 03/02/2010 |
| 7664312 | Information input and output method using dot pattern Making a dot pattern so that misalignment in a x direction and a y direction is alternately generated for every adjacent information dots on a virtual grid line, the misalignment is alternately generated in the x direction and the y direction for each dot and this r... | 02/16/2010 |
| 7634128 | Stereoscopic three-dimensional metrology system and method A stereoscopic three-dimensional optical metrology system and method accurately measure the location of physical features on a test article in a manner that is fast and robust to surface contour discontinuities. Disclosed embodiments may image a test article from tw... | 12/15/2009 |
| 7630536 | Printing inspection apparatus, printing inspection method, printing inspection data generating apparatus, and printing inspection data generating method To provide a printing inspection apparatus and a printing inspection method enabling an optimal inspection mode in which a balance is kept between the improvement of production efficiency and the securing of a printing accuracy. In a printing inspection for i... | 12/08/2009 |
| 7590280 | Position detection apparatus and exposure apparatus An exposure apparatus for exposing an object to light. The apparatus includes a camera which captures an image of a mark on the object to obtain image data corresponding to the image, an extraction section which extracts an edge position in the image data obtained b... | 09/15/2009 |
| 7583834 | Laser etched fiducials in roll-roll display The present invention relates to a method of aligning comprising providing a support, applying a transparent layer, patterning at least the transparent layer to produce a pattern and an alignment feature capable of scattering light, illuminating the support and the ... | 09/01/2009 |
| 7580558 | Screen printing apparatus A screen printing apparatus and method for printing deposits of material onto a workpiece, the apparatus comprising an inspection station for determining a positional relationship of features on upper and lower surfaces of the workpiece. The inspection station compr... | 08/25/2009 |
| 7570801 | Device suitable for placing components on a substrate A device comprises an imaging device, a placement element connected to the imaging device for placing a component on a substrate, as well as an optical system having an optical axis. The placement element and the imaging device can be jointly moved relative to the o... | 08/04/2009 |
| 7565002 | Wafer surface observation apparatus A dicing apparatus for moving a wafer quickly to a desired observation position before the wafer surface is observed. The apparatus comprises imaging means for imaging the surface of a wafer, display means for displaying the image picked up by the imaging means, inp... | 07/21/2009 |
| 7508976 | Local process variation correction for overlay measurement A diffraction based overlay metrology system produces the overlay error independent of effects caused by local process variations. Generally, overlay patterns include process variations that provide spectral contributions, along with the overlay shift, to the measur... | 03/24/2009 |
| 7487438 | Method and apparatus for recognizing a digitized form, extracting information from a filled-in form, and generating a corrected filled-in form Methods and apparatus for comparing blank forms represented in a digital format to digitized filled-in forms are described. Different errors are attributed different weights when attempting to correlate regions of blank and filled-in forms. Foreground pixels in the ... | 02/03/2009 |
| 7480404 | Method and system for positioning articles with respect to a processing tool A method and system are provided for use in positioning an article, from a group of similar articles, with respect to a processing tool to be applied to the article while the article is located on a stage. A first one of the articles is located on the stage at a pre... | 01/20/2009 |
| 7477774 | Choice of reference markings for enabling fast estimating of the position of an imaging device A method of estimating the position of the field of view of an imaging device, such as a camera, relative to a board involves designating markings on the board as references and detecting the shift in these reference markings within the field of view of the camera c... | 01/13/2009 |
| 7442930 | Method for correcting distortions in electron backscatter diffraction patterns A method is provided for correcting magnetic field distortions in an electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) pattern. An EBSD pattern is firstly generated from a sample placed within an electron microscope. A predetermined representation of a magnetic field in the m... | 10/28/2008 |
| 7437207 | Method and apparatus for automatically processing multiple applications in a predetermined order to affect multi-application sequencing An apparatus and method performing a sequence of processing steps on a load supported by a processing plate. The load can include a single sheet on which a plurality of applications are performed or can include a plurality of panels on which respective applications ... | 10/14/2008 |
| 7436993 | Apparatus and method for detecting defects in periodic pattern on object In a defect detection apparatus, images of first to third inspection areas on a substrate are picked up to acquire first to third images. A positional difference acquisition part (51) acquires a first difference vector between the first image and the second i... | 10/14/2008 |
