Wei Jei Fang, 58Costa Mesa, CA

8010307, Aug 30, 2011

Dec 5, 2007

11/951173

Wei Fang - Milpitas CA, US
Jack Y. Jau - Los Altos Hills CA, US
Hong Xiao - Pleasanton CA, US

Hermes-Microvision, Inc. - Hsinchu

G06F 19/00

702 95, 702 84, 250548, 250221, 2505593, 356401, 3562374, 3562375

A method and system for controlling an overlay shift on an integrated circuit is disclosed. The method and system comprises utilizing a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to measure the overlay shift between a first mask and a second mask of the circuit after a second mask and comparing the overlay shift to information about the integrated circuit in a database. The method and system includes providing a control mechanism to analyze the overlay shift and feed forward to the fabrication process before a third mask for error correction. A system and method in accordance with the present invention advantageously utilizes a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image overlay measurement after the fabrication process such as etching and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP).

8050490, Nov 1, 2011

Apr 30, 2009

12/433762

Hong Xiao - Pleasanton CA, US
Wei Fang - Milpitas CA, US
Jack Jau - Los Altos Hills CA, US

Hermes Microvision, Inc. - Hsin-Chu

G06K 9/00

382151, 250306, 250307

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 microscopic image, averaging the charged particle microscopic image by using the inspection pattern period to form an averaged inspection pattern period, estimating an average width from the averaged inspection pattern period, and comparing the average width with a predefined threshold value to determine the presence of an overlay shift defect.

8055059, Nov 8, 2011

Dec 23, 2008

12/342821

Wei Fang - Milpitas CA, US
Jack Jau - Los Altos Hills CA, US

Hermes Microvision Inc. - Hsinchu

G06K 9/00

382149, 382106, 382151

A method for determining a defect during sample inspection involving charged particle beam imaging transforms a target charged particle microscopic image and its corresponding reference charged particle microscopic images each into a plurality of feature images, and then compares the feature images against each other. Each feature image captures and stresses a specific feature which is common to both the target and reference images. The feature images produced by the same operator are corresponding to each other. A distance between corresponding feature images is evaluated. Comparison between the target and reference images is made based on the evaluated distances to determine the presence of a defect within the target charged particle microscopic image.

8094924, Jan 10, 2012

Dec 15, 2008

12/335458

Jack Jau - Los Altos Hills CA, US
Zhongwei Chen - San Jose CA, US
Yi Xiang Wang - Fremont CA, US
Chung-Shih Pan - Palo Alto CA, US
Joe Wang - Campbell CA, US
Xuedong Liu - Cupertino CA, US
Weiming Ren - San Jose CA, US
Wei Fang - Milpitas CA, US

Hermes-Microvision, Inc. - Hsinchu

G06K 9/00

382149

An apparatus comprises an imaging unit to image a wafer to be reviewed, wherein imaging unit is the modified SORIL column. The modified SORIL column includes a focusing sub-system to do micro-focusing due to a wafer surface topology, wherein the focusing sub-system verifies the position of a grating image reflecting from the wafer surface to adjust the focus; and a surface charge control to regulate the charge accumulation due to electron irradiation during the review process, wherein the gaseous molecules are injected under a flood gun beam rather than under a primary beam. The modified SORIL column further includes a storage unit for storing wafer design database; and a host computer to manage defect locating, defect sampling, and defect classifying, wherein the host computer and storage unit are linked by high speed network.

8217349, Jul 10, 2012

Aug 5, 2010

12/850899

Chiyan Kuan - Danville CA, US
Wei Fang - Milpitas CA, US
You-Jin Wang - Milpitas CA, US

Hermes Microvision, Inc. - Hsinchu

H01J 37/28
G01N 23/00
G21K 5/00

250310, 250306, 250307, 250311, 250372, 25049222, 430296

A method of inspecting an EUV reticle is proposed, which uses an electron beam (EB) with low density and high energy to scan the surface of an EUV reticle for inspecting the EUV reticle. A step of conditioning surface charge is followed by a step of inspecting surface of the EUV reticle. The step of conditioning surface can neutralize the surface charge and the step of inspecting can obtain an image of the EUV reticle. The present invention uses a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to provide a primary electron beam for conditioning the surface charge and a focused primary electron beam for scanning the surface.

8225262, Jul 17, 2012

Mar 18, 2009

12/406883

Marvin Tom - Mountain View CA, US
Wei Mark Fang - Campbell CA, US
Srinivasan Dasasathyan - Sunnyvale CA, US

Xilinx, Inc. - San Jose CA

G06F 17/50

716122, 716114, 716129, 716130

A method of placing clock circuits in an integrated circuit is disclosed. The method comprises receiving a circuit design to be implemented in the integrated circuit; identifying portions of the circuit design comprising clock circuits; determining an order of clock circuits to be placed based upon resource requirements of the clock circuits; and placing the portions of the circuit design comprising clock circuits in sites of the integrated circuit. A system for placing clock circuits in an integrated circuit is also disclosed.

8230377, Jul 24, 2012

Apr 24, 2009

12/429991

Wei Mark Fang - Campbell CA, US
Srinivasan Dasasathyan - Sunnyvale CA, US

Xilinx, Inc. - San Jose CA

G06F 17/50

716124, 716104, 716105, 716118, 716119

A computer-implemented method of globally placing a circuit design on a programmable integrated circuit (IC) includes dividing, by a placement system, the programmable IC into a grid comprising a plurality of cells, assigning each component of a selected component type of the circuit design to one of a plurality of control set groups according to a control set of the component, and calculating a force including a control set force that depends upon overlap of control sets within the plurality of cells. The method further can include applying the force to at least one selected component of the circuit design and assigning components of the circuit design to locations on the programmable IC by solving a set of linear equations that depend upon application of the force to the at least one selected component to create a global placement. The circuit design including the global placement can be output.

8299431, Oct 30, 2012

Jun 24, 2009

12/491013

Yan Zhao - San Jose CA, US
Jack Jau - Los Altos Hills CA, US
Wei Fang - Milpitas CA, US

Hermes Microvision, Inc. - Hsinchu

H01J 37/26

250307, 250306, 250309, 250310, 250311, 430296

A method for examining a sample with a scanning charged particle beam imaging apparatus. First, an image area and a scan area are specified on a surface of the sample. Herein, the image area is entirely overlapped within the scan area. Next, the scan area is scanned by using a charged particle beam along a direction neither parallel nor perpendicular to an orientation of the scan area. It is possible that only a portion of the scan area overlapped with the image area is exposed to the charged particle beam. It also is possible that both the shape and the size of the image area are essentially similar with that of the scan area, such that the size of the area projected by the charged particle beam is almost equal to the size of the image area.