The inventors discovered that viscosity of a protein solution can be estimated by measuring the apparent particle size or apparent molecular weight by a small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) method or X-ray solution scattering method, which enables measurement of small amounts of samples, and then correlating those measurement results with viscosity of the protein solution.

A method for analyzing an object, includes irradiating the object with incident photon radiation, acquiring a spectrum transmitted by the object using a spectrometric transmission detector, determining at least one first property of the object from the transmission spectrum, verifying that at least one doubt criterion relating to the first property of the object is met, and translating the fact that the object contains a material that is potentially dubious for the application under consideration. A second part, carried out only when the doubt criterion is met, includes acquiring an energy spectrum scattered by the object using a spectrometric scattering detector at an angle of 1 to 15, and determining a second property of the object from at least the scatter spectrum and comparing at least the second property of the object with properties of standard materials stored in a database to identify the objects composition material.

Methods and systems for measuring periodic structures using multi-angle X-ray reflectance scatterometry (XRS) are disclosed. For example, a method of measuring a sample by X-ray reflectance scatterometry involves impinging an incident X-ray beam on a sample having a periodic structure to generate a scattered X-ray beam, the incident X-ray beam simultaneously providing a plurality of incident angles and a plurality of azimuthal angles. The method also involves collecting at least a portion of the scattered X-ray beam.

Methods and systems for measuring periodic structures using multi-angle X-ray reflectance scatterometry (XRS) are disclosed. For example, a method of measuring a sample by X-ray reflectance scatterometry involves impinging an incident X-ray beam on a sample having a periodic structure to generate a scattered X-ray beam, the incident X-ray beam simultaneously providing a plurality of incident angles and a plurality of azimuthal angles. The method also involves collecting at least a portion of the scattered X-ray beam.

Methods and systems for calibrating the location of x-ray beam incidence onto a specimen in an x-ray scatterometry metrology system are described herein. The precise location of incidence of the illumination beam on the surface of the wafer is determined based on occlusion of the illumination beam by two or more occlusion elements. The center of the illumination beam is determined based on measured values of transmitted flux and a model of the interaction of the beam with each occlusion element. The position of the axis of rotation orienting a wafer over a range of angles of incidence is adjusted to align with the surface of wafer and intersect the illumination beam at the measurement location. A precise offset value between the normal angle of incidence of the illumination beam relative to the wafer surface and the zero angle of incidence as measured by the specimen positioning system is determined.

A system is disclosed, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. The system includes a metrology tool configured to acquire one or more measurements of a portion of a sample. The system includes a controller including one or more processors configured to execute program instructions causing the one or more processors to: generate a surface kinetics model output based on a surface kinetics model; determine an expected response of the surface kinetics model output to excitation by polarized light; compare the determined expected response to the one or more measurements; generate one or more metrics based on the comparison between the determined expected response and the one or more measurements of the sample; adjust one or more parameters of the surface kinetics model to generate an adjusted surface kinetics model; and apply the adjusted surface kinetics model to simulate on-sample performance during plasma processing.

Provided is an X-ray small angle optical system, which easily achieves a desired angular resolution, including: an X-ray source having a microfocus; a multilayer mirror having an elliptical reflection surface, and being configured to collect X-rays emitted from the X-ray source and to irradiate a sample; and an X-ray detector configured to detect scattered X-rays generated from the sample, in which the elliptical reflection surface of the multilayer mirror has a focal point A and a focal point B, in which the X-ray source is arranged such that the microfocus includes the focal point A, and in which the X-ray detector is arranged on the multilayer mirror side of the focal point B.

Methods and systems for improving a measurement recipe describing a sequence of measurements employed to characterize semiconductor structures are described herein. A measurement recipe is repeatedly updated before a queue of measurements defined by the previous measurement recipe is fully executed. In some examples, an improved measurement recipe identifies a minimum set of measurement options that increases wafer throughput while meeting measurement uncertainty requirements. In some examples, measurement recipe optimization is controlled to trade off measurement robustness and measurement time. This enables flexibility in the case of outliers and process excursions. In some examples, measurement recipe optimization is controlled to minimize any combination of measurement uncertainty, measurement time, move time, and target dose. In some examples, a measurement recipe is updated while measurement data is being collected. In some examples, a measurement recipe is updated at a site while data is collected at another site.

A method of processing a glass material includes guiding and/or focusing light from a light source to glass material in a hot stage of a processing system, where the light source provides light at a wavelength that interacts with crystals that may be formed in the glass material. The method includes collecting and/or guiding light directed from the glass material in the hot stage to a wavelength separator, and separating the light directed from the glass material to provide a spectrum having wavelengths that are within about twenty nanometers of the wavelength . The method includes observing with a detector light of the spectrum to identify nano-scale shifts in the wavelength caused by interaction with crystals, if present, within the glass material in the hot stage of the processing system.

An information processing device includes: an acquiring section acquiring small angle scattering data obtained by measuring a material, and supplemental information that is two-dimensional data of the material; and a predicting section that, by using the small angle scattering data and the supplemental information as input, predicts a three-dimensional structure of the material from output of a prediction model that is learned in advance and that is for predicting the three-dimensional structure of the material.