Methods and systems for characterizing dimensions and material properties of semiconductor devices by full beam x-ray scatterometry are described herein. A full beam x-ray scatterometry measurement involves illuminating a sample with an X-ray beam and detecting the intensities of the resulting zero diffraction order and higher diffraction orders simultaneously for one or more angles of incidence relative to the sample. The simultaneous measurement of the direct beam and the scattered orders enables high throughput measurements with improved accuracy. The full beam x-ray scatterometry system includes one or more photon counting detectors with high dynamic range and thick, highly absorptive crystal substrates that absorb the direct beam with minimal parasitic backscattering. In other aspects, model based measurements are performed based on the zero diffraction order beam, and measurement performance of the full beam x-ray scatterometry system is estimated and controlled based on properties of the measured zero order beam.

An embodiment of a method for real time material identification is described that comprises determining an approximate mass value for an unknown material from spectral information derived from mass spectral analysis of the unknown material; retrieving profile models that correspond to a known material from a data structure using the approximate mass value; fitting a sample profile for the unknown material from the spectral information to the profile models to generate a fit score for each fit, wherein the lowest fit score corresponds to the best fit; calculating a mass value from the best fitting profile model and the sample profile.

A crystal structure analysis in which: each of a plurality of samples are irradiated while the angle of incidence is continuously changed by rotating the crystal, whereby diffraction spot intensity and reliability for a plurality of crystal lattice planes are determined and a data set (Data-1, Data-2, Data-3, . . . , Data-n) is acquired; whether or not to perform merging, which is a process of combining multiple sets of data into one, is determined for each individual set of data on the basis of a merging criterion (e.g., Rint, completeness); merging is performed on data for which merging is to be performed; and a crystal structure is determined according to merged data. A crystal structure analysis result is obtained in a crystal structure analysis method, a crystal structure analysis device, and a crystal structure analysis program in which a crystal structure is determined by data-processing and analyzing a plurality of diffraction profiles.

An evaluation method of a negative electrode active material for secondary battery includes measuring an X-ray diffraction of a battery cell stored in a charged state; calculating intensity integrals of extracted diffraction peaks, where the extracted diffraction peaks are extracted from X-ray diffraction peaks for a carbon interlayer compounds and a decomposed products contained respectively in a negative electrode active layer of a negative electrode from the measured X-ray diffraction; calculating a reaction rate constant k.sub.1 for the carbon interlayer compounds or a reaction rate constant k.sub.1 for the decomposed products of the carbon interlayer compounds from the calculated intensity integral; and evaluating a material suitability of the negative electrode active material contained in the negative electrode active layer based on the calculated reaction rate constant.

A method of calibrating an electromagnetic medical imaging apparatus having a vector network analyser (VNA) coupled via transmission lines to an array of antennas disposed about an imaging domain; measure scattering parameters S.sub.cal for a known calibration object at a known location within the imaging domain; process the measured scattering parameters S.sub.cal to calculate calibration terms; rearranging at least some of the transmission lines in preparation for imaging a subject; with the rearranged transmission lines, measure scattering parameters for one-port calibration standards to determine matrices Y.sub.A and Y.sub.B; calculate a thru error term a.sub.M for calibrating scattering parameters for the subject; with the rearranged transmission lines, measure scattering parameters of the subject and calibrate the measured scattering parameters of the subject.

[00001]

The invention relates to an industrial X-ray workpiece measuring system including an X-ray source (4), which is arranged in an X-ray protective housing (2) and has an X-ray focal spot (3), a workpiece carrier which is arranged in the X-ray protective housing, for accommodating a non-medical workpiece (5) to be examined, and an X-ray detector (10a, 10b, 10c) provided on and/or in the X-ray protective housing, designed to detect an X-ray beam from the X-ray source, which X-ray beam penetrates the workpiece held on the workpiece carrier, and downstream of which X-ray detector, an electronic evaluator can be connected.

Only X-rays having a specific wavelength out of focusing X-rays 2 diffracted from a sample S is reflected from a monochromator 60 based on a Bragg's condition, passed through a receiving slit 30 and detected by an X-ray detector 20. The monochromator 60 is configured to be freely removable, and arranged between the sample S and a focal point 2a at which the focusing X-rays 2 diffracted from the sample S are directly focused. At this time, the monochromator 60 is approached to the focal point 2a as closely as possible. The monochromator 60 comprises a multilayer mirror having an internal interplanar spacing which varies continuously from one end to the other end.

The particle beam analyzer includes: an uncertainty level evaluation unit that calculates an optimization target position constituting a spatial position specified on the basis of a variation in spatial density distribution for each spatial position with respect to a plurality of spatial density distributions corresponding to the profile selected by the profile selection unit; a differential regression analysis unit that calculates, using regression analysis, a function for obtaining, from the spatial density distribution, a difference from the input profile by using the data held in the profile database and the difference calculated by the profile difference evaluation unit; and a spatial density distribution optimization unit that calculates a spatial density distribution for which the difference of the function calculated by the differential regression analysis unit is minimized, by using, as a variable, only the spatial density in the optimization target position calculated by the uncertainty level evaluation unit.

A method for evaluating system performance can include comparing a test average of instances of variables of test system variables to a baseline average of a baseline variables. Each of the instances of the variable of the test system variables may be shifted by a shift amount for a subset of the variables. A modified test data set may be generated from the shifted test data set. The modified test data set may be transformed with a sparse principal component analysis into test components. The test components may be compared to baseline components using a Hotelling T.sup.2 as a test statistic. Performance of the system may be quantified based upon the test statistic.

A system and method of sorting mineral streams, for example laterite mineral ores, into appropriately classified valuable and waste streams for maximum recovery of value from the mineral stream, e.g., a stream of minerals includes receiving response data indicating reflected, absorbed or backscattered energy from a mineral sample exposed to a sensor, where the mineral sample is irradiated with electromagnetic energy. The system determines spectral characteristics of the mineral sample by performing spectral analysis on the response data of the mineral sample and identifies a composition of the mineral sample by comparing the spectral characteristics of the mineral sample to previously developed spectral characteristics of samples of known composition. The system then generates a sort decision for the mineral sample based on the comparison, where the sort decision is used in diverting the mineral sample to a desired destination e.g. pyrometallurgical treatment stages, or to a waste stream.