The marriage of optical sensing techniques with sophisticated digital signal processing has resulted in a myriad of practical metrology systems. Optical metrology systems offer many attractive measurement features. These systems are inherently non-contacting, nondestructive, and immune from electromagnetic interference. In addition, since light is used as the sensing probe, the measurement syst...

We have used coherent X-ray diffraction experiments to characterize both the 1-D and 2-D foci produced by nanofocusing Kirkpatrick-Baez (K-B) mirrors, and we find agreement. Algorithms related to ptychography were used to obtain a 3-D reconstruction of a focused hard X-ray beam waist, using data measured when the mirrors were not optimally aligned. Considerable astigmatism was evident in the re...

Estimation of physical parameters is essential in almost any part of science and technology. The enhancement of performance in this task (e.g. beating the standard classical shot-noise limit) using available physical resources is a major goal in metrology. Quantum metrology in closed systems has indicated that entanglement in such systems may be a useful resource. However, whether in open quant...

The semiconductor industry uses lithography machines for manufacturing complex integrated circuits (also called ICs) onto wafers. Because an IC is built up layer by layer it is very important to align the wafer each time it enters the machine. Today, gratings are used for this alignment step. Gratings are tiny periodic structures printed on a wafer and are even smaller than ICs. These gratings ...

Is it a defect? Will it print? Accelerating shrinks depends on successful pattern transfer. 8 Precision and Process Control Maintaining an acceptable precision-to-tolerance ratio drives adoption of a new metrology technique for sub-0.18 µm linewidth control. Investigating and quantifying overlay accuracy is only as good as the data you have. 35 Exposing The SCAAM Eliminate anomalies that afflic...

A lightweight and electrically passive interferometer is demanded by a number of applications for precision metrology such as machine tool metrology and on-machine feedback [1]. To satisfy these requirements, a fiber-optic coupled heterodyne displacement measuring Michelson interferometer (FIDMI) shown in Fig.1 has been developed in the Center of Precision Metrology (CPM) at the University of N...

In situ metrology overcomes many of the limitations of existing metrology techniques and is capable of exceeding the performance of present-day optics. A novel technique for precisely characterizing an X-ray bimorph mirror and deducing its two-dimensional (2D) slope error map is presented. This technique has also been used to perform fast optimization of a bimorph mirror using the derived 2D pi...

As parametric variation increases in importance with shrinking dimensions and increasing integration, the need to understand and manage such variation is becoming critical. Statistical metrology is a collection of tools and techniques for the systematic characterization and study of variation in semiconductor manufacturing. In addition to methods for collecting large volumes of data, important ...

Quantum-dense metrology constitutes a special case of quantum metrology in which two orthogonal phase space projections of a signal are simultaneously sensed beyond the shot-noise limit. Previously, it was shown that the additional sensing channel that is provided by quantum-dense metrology contains information that can be used to identify and to discard corrupted segments from the measurement ...

Dynamic metrology holds the key to overcoming several challenging limitations of conventional optical metrology, especially with regards to precision freeform optical elements. We present two dynamic metrology systems: 1) adaptive interferometric null testing; and 2) instantaneous phase shifting deflectometry, along with an overview of a gradient data processing and surface reconstruction techn...