US 12,243,193 B2
Method for de-noising an electron microscope image
Bappaditya Dey, Heverlee (BE); Sandip Halder, Bierbeek (BE); Gouri Sankar Kar, Leuven (BE); Victor M. Blanco, Leefdaal (BE); and Senthil Srinivasan Shanmugam Vadakupudhu Palayam, Blanden (BE)
Assigned to IMEC VZW, Leuven (BE)
Filed by IMEC VZW, Leuven (BE)
Filed on Jul. 2, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/366,350.
Claims priority of application No. 20195447 (EP), filed on Sep. 10, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0076383 A1, Mar. 10, 2022
Int. Cl. G06T 5/70 (2024.01); G06T 5/50 (2006.01)
CPC G06T 5/70 (2024.01) [G06T 2207/10061 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20081 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20084 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
recording an image of a section of a sample with a scanning electron microscope using a voltage contrast mode of the scanning electron microscope;
replacing a first value of a first pixel of the image with a second value of a second pixel of the image;
determining a de-noised value for the first pixel based on third values of third pixels of the image; and
replacing the second value of the first pixel with the de-noised value to generate a denoised image;
performing a spatially resolved inspection measurement of the section of the sample by determining electrical property values at different locations of the section of the sample;
correlating pixel values of the denoised image to the electrical property values;
generating a property map based on the correlating such that pixel values of the property map indicate the electrical property values of the different locations of the section of the sample; and
determining a calibration curve based on the correlating, wherein the calibration curve correlates the pixel values of the image to the electrical property values.