Samsung patents electron beam method to check chip layer alignment
Samsung describes a system that uses an electron beam to inspect tiny alignment marks on semiconductor wafers. It analyzes the resulting images to calculate how well different layers of the chip are stacked on top of each other.
In the filing’s own words
An overlay measuring system includes an electronic optical system configured to irradiate an electron beam onto a sample on which an overlay mark having designed overlay values is formed, and configured to detect electrons emitted from the sample, and a processor configured to acquire a voltage contrast image of the overlay mark from the electrons detected by the electronic optical system. The processor is configured to obtain a defect function from voltage contrast image data of the voltage contrast image, the defect function changing according to the designed overlay values, and is configured to perform self-cross correlation on the defect function to determine an overlay.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. An overlay measuring system, comprising: an electronic optical system configured to irradiate an electron beam onto a sample on which an overlay mark having designed overlay values is formed, and configured to detect electrons emitted from the sample; and a processor configured to acquire a voltage contrast image of the overlay mark from the electrons detected by the electronic optical system, wherein the processor is configured to obtain a defect function from voltage contrast image data of the voltage contrast image, the defect function changing according to the designed overlay values, and is configured to perform self-cross correlation on the defect function to determine an overlay.
Facts
- Company
- Samsung (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.)
- Official title
- OVERLAY MEASURING METHOD AND SYSTEM, AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING A SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE USING THE SAME
- Publication number
- US20260276375A1
- Application number
- 19674581
- Filed
- May 12, 2026
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Inventors
- 8
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G01B 15/00 Physics & computingMore from Samsung in Chips & hardware
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.