Nanometrics Assigned Patent

By Targeted News Service

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 3 -- Nanometrics, Milpitas, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,232,817) developed by Emil Kamieniecki, Bedford, Mass., for an "apparatus and method for electrical characterization by selecting and adjusting the light for a target depth of a semiconductor."The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The present disclosure provides methods and apparatus that enable characterization of an electrical property of a semiconductor specimen, e.g., dopant concentration of a near-surface region of the specimen. In exemplary method, a target depth for measurement is selected. This thickness may, for example, correspond to a nominal production thickness of a thin active device region of the specimen. A light is adjusted to an intensity selected to characterize a target region of the specimen having a thickness no greater than the target depth and a surface of the specimen is illuminated with the light. An AC voltage signal induced in the specimen by the light is measured and this AC voltage may be used to quantify an aspect of the electrical property, e.g., to determine dopant concentration, of the target region."

The patent application was filed on Feb. 4, 2010 (12/700,564). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=82,32,817.PN.&OS=PN/82,32,817&RS=PN/82,32,817

Written by Kusum Sangma; edited by Anand Kumar.

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