US 12,456,600 B2
Scanning electron microscopy-based tomography of specimens
Itamar Shani, Mishmar David (IL); Konstantin Chirko, Rehovot (IL); Lior Yaron, Ness Ziona (IL); Guy Eytan, Kfar-Aviv (IL); and Guy Shwartz, Ramat Gan (IL)
Assigned to Applied Materials Israel Ltd., Rehovot (IL)
Filed by Applied Materials Israel Ltd., Rehovot (IL)
Filed on May 29, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/203,034.
Prior Publication US 2024/0404784 A1, Dec. 5, 2024
Int. Cl. H01J 37/28 (2006.01); G06T 11/00 (2006.01); G06T 11/20 (2006.01)
CPC H01J 37/28 (2013.01) [G06T 11/006 (2013.01); G06T 11/206 (2013.01); G06T 2211/40 (2013.01); H01J 2237/2801 (2013.01); H01J 2237/2813 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for non-destructive tomography of specimens, the system comprising:
a scanning electron microscope (SEM) configured to obtain a sinogram of a tested specimen, parameterized by a vector s, by sequentially projecting e-beams on the tested specimen at each of a plurality of projection directions and a plurality of offsets, respectively, and, for each e-beam, measuring a respective intensity of electrons returned from the tested specimen; and
one or more processors configured to obtain a tomographic map, pertaining to the tested specimen, by determining values indicative of components of a vector t defined by an equation Wt=s, wherein W is a matrix with components wij specifying a contribution of a j-th voxel in a nominal specimen to a value of an i-th element of a nominal sinogram of the nominal specimen, respectively;
wherein the tested specimen is of a same, or a similar, design intent as the nominal specimen; and
wherein the matrix W accounts for e-beam expansion and attenuation with depth within the nominal specimen.