US 11,946,875 B2
Optical phase measurement system and method
Gilad Barak, Rehovot (IL); Dror Shafir, Kiryat Ono (IL); Yanir Hainick, Tel-Aviv (IL); and Shahar Gov, Rehovot (IL)
Assigned to NOVA LTD., Rehovot (IL)
Filed by NOVA LTD., Rehovot (IL)
Filed on Sep. 27, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/935,930.
Application 17/935,930 is a continuation of application No. 16/882,784, filed on May 26, 2020, granted, now 11,460,415.
Application 16/882,784 is a continuation of application No. 16/524,296, filed on Jul. 29, 2019, granted, now 10,663,408, issued on May 26, 2020.
Application 16/524,296 is a continuation of application No. 15/866,768, filed on Jan. 10, 2018, granted, now 10,365,231, issued on Jul. 20, 2019.
Application 15/866,768 is a continuation of application No. 14/769,170, granted, now 9,897,553, issued on Feb. 20, 2018, previously published as PCT/IL2014/050189, filed on Feb. 20, 2014.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/767,364, filed on Feb. 21, 2013.
Prior Publication US 2023/0130231 A1, Apr. 27, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G01N 21/956 (2006.01); G01N 21/95 (2006.01); G03F 7/00 (2006.01)
CPC G01N 21/956 (2013.01) [G01N 21/9501 (2013.01); G03F 7/70616 (2013.01); G03F 7/70625 (2013.01); G01B 2210/56 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
11. An optical system configured to measure patterned structures, the optical system comprises:
an optical measurement device configured to perform optical measurements on a known structure, wherein the optical measurements differ from each other by a light spot characteristic to obtain multiple optical measurement results; wherein each optical measurement comprises concurrently illuminating parts of multiple regions that differ from each other and belong to the known structure; wherein for each optical measurement the detected light comprises different fields that are mixed, wherein a manner in which the different fields are mixed are indicated by mixing factors; and
a processor that is configured to determine, based on the optical measurements, values of the mixing factors and a dependency of the optical measurement results on the light spot characteristic.