A beam metrology device for determining at least one characteristic of first radiation and/or at least one characteristic of second radiation, said second radiation being generated via a first nonlinear process upon receiving a first portion of the first radiation; the beam metrology device comprising: a metrology device nonlinear medium configured to receive a second portion of the first radiation and thereby to generate third radiation via a second nonlinear process; at least one detector configured to measure at least one characteristic of the third radiation; and a processing unit operable to determine the at least one characteristic of the first radiation and/or the at least one characteristic of the second radiation based on said at least one characteristic of the third radiation.

A contour extraction model learning device for detecting a contour of a semiconductor lithography pattern includes a memory storing a contour extraction training program, and a processor configured to execute the contour extraction training program stored in the memory, wherein the contour extraction training program extracts a first contour image by inputting a SEM image of a new pattern to a contour extraction unit, generates a virtual SEM image by inputting the first contour image to a style transfer model, and trains the contour extraction model based on a training dataset in which the first contour image is matched with the virtual SEM image.

Systems and methods of detecting a defect in a sample using a charged-particle beam apparatus are disclosed. The apparatus may include a charged-particle source configured to emit charged particles and a controller including circuitry configured to irradiate a region of a sample comprising a plurality of features with a first dosage of charged particles of the primary charged-particle beam; inspect the plurality of features using a second dosage of the charged particles of the primary charged-particle beam, acquire an image of the inspected plurality of features; and determining whether there is a defect based on a gray level value of a feature of the plurality of features, wherein the first dosage is smaller than a saturation dosage, and wherein the saturation dosage comprises a total number of charged particles exceeding a charge storage capacity of the feature.

Methods and systems measuring structural parameters characterizing a measurement target based on changes in measurement signal values and estimated changes in electrical properties, optical properties, or both, of the measurement target due to variation of mechanical stress are presented herein. The electrical and optical properties of a measurement target are perturbed by inducing a mechanical wave within the measurement target under measurement. In preferred embodiments, the mechanical wave is excited by an ultrasonic actuator in contact with a back side of a wafer under measurement. Both the changes in the measurement signal values and estimated changes in the electrical, properties, optical properties, or both, of the measurement target are quantified and provided as input to a measurement model. In this manner, the measurement is based on the derivatives of measurement signals with respect to electrical properties, optical properties, or both.

A pitch walk inspection method includes obtaining a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image for a line and space (L/S) pattern formed by a multi-patterning technology (MPT), where L/S pattern includes a plurality of lines and spaces that are alternately arranged; detecting a main pitch of the L/S pattern in the SEM image; dividing a graph of the main pitch into graphs of component pitches, based on the MPT; performing a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on each graph of the component pitches; multiplying a phase and an intensity graph of the FFT of each of the graphs of the component pitches with each other and obtaining compensated FFT phase graphs; and calculating a pitch walk for the L/S pattern by obtaining differences between phase peak values of the compensated FFT phase graphs.

A method of determining a parameter of interest of a structure comprising at least one first feature oriented along a first axis of a structure coordinate system and at least one second feature oriented along a second axis of the structure coordinate system. The method comprising: illuminating the first feature and the second feature with first illumination from a first direction oblique to said first axis and second axis, so as to generate first scattered radiation from the first feature and second scattered radiation from the second feature, detecting a first interference pattern formed by interference between a portion of the first scattered radiation and first reference illumination; detecting a second interference pattern formed by interference between a portion of the second scattered radiation and the first reference illumination; and determining the parameter of interest of the structure using the first interference pattern and the second interference pattern.

Techniques for improving critical dimension metrology are disclosed herein. An example method includes emitting a radiation beam comprising (i) a primary beam that passes through a sample and scatters into a set of scattered beams and (ii) a reference beam. The method further includes detecting the reference beam and a portion of the set of scattered beams, wherein the reference beam and the portion of the set of scattered beams superimpose at the detector as a hologram of the sample to encode structural information associated with at least one lithographic pattern of the sample. The method further includes executing a dimensioning algorithm configured to: determine one or more critical dimensions of the sample based on one or more properties of the hologram and reconstruct a real-space image of the sample based on the hologram. The method further includes causing the critical dimensions or the real-space image to be displayed.

Systems and methods disclosed herein relate to a digital lithography system and method for alignment resolution with the digital lithography system. The digital lithography system includes a metrology system configured to improve overlay alignment for different layers of the lithography process. The metrology system allows for decreased size of alignment marks. Based on determining the positions of alignment marks with the metrology system, correction data is obtained to achieve accurate overlay of layers on subsequent patterning processes.

A method of performing 3D metrology on a structure includes directing an electron beam onto a surface of the structure, capturing a first set of images of the structure at a first landing angle, capturing a second set of images of the structure at a second landing angle, the second landing angle being different from the first landing angle, and determining, by comparing the first set of images to the second set of images, at least one 3D parameter of the structure. The first set of images at the first landing angle and the second set of images at the second landing angle are captured in a single run of the electron beam across the surface of the structure.

A method of substrate topography correction. The method may include receiving a thickness map of a substrate, the thickness map defining a total thickness variation across the substrate, and providing a greyscale photoresist layer on a first surface of the substrate. The method may further include performing a greyscale lithography operation on the greyscale photoresist layer, based upon the thickness map, wherein the greyscale lithography operation is to reduce the total thickness variation.