| US 6,611,330 C1 (6508th) | ||
| SYSTEM FOR MEASURING POLARIMETRIC SPECTRUM AND OTHER PROPERTIES OF A SAMPLE | ||
| Shing Lee, Fremont, Calif.; Haiming Wang, Fremont, Calif.; Adam Norton, Palo Alto, Calif., and Mehrdad Nikoonahad, Menlo Park, Calif., assignors to KLA-Tencor Corporation, San Jose, Calif. | ||
| Reexamination Request No. 90/007,944, Feb. 21, 2006. | ||
| Reexamination Certificate for Patent 6,611,330, issued Aug. 26, 2003, Appl. No. 778,245, Feb. 6, 2001. | ||
| Continuation of application No. 09/246,922, filed on Feb. 9, 1999, now Pat. No. 6,184,984. | ||
| This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer. | ||
| Int. Cl. G01N 21/21; |
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| U.S. Cl. 356—369 |
| AS A RESULT OF REEXAMINATION, IT HAS BEEN DETERMINED THAT: |
| Claims 37, 38, 90 and 91 are cancelled. |
| Claims 1, 7, 25, 26, 28, 39, 57, 58, 60, 61, 63, 80, 94, 105, 107, 115, 116, 118, 119, 130, 133, 134, 136, 137, 143, 145, 146, 152, 153, 156, 167, 170, 180, 189, 190, 192, 193, 195, 204, 207, 208, 210, 216, 224, 225, 227, 238 and 241 are determined to be patentable as amended. |
| Claims 2-6, 8-24, 27, 29-36, 40-56, 59, 62, 64-79, 81-89, 92, 93, 95-104, 106, 108-114, 117, 120-129, 131, 132, 135, 138-142, 144, 147-151, 154, 155,157-166, 168, 169, 171-179,181-188, 191, 194, 196-203, 205, 206, 209, 211-215, 217-223, 226, 228-237, 239, 240 and 242-249, dependent on an amended claim, are determined to be patentable. |
| New claims 250-301 are added and determined to be patentable. |
| 1. A method for measuring optically detectable properties of a sample, comprising: focusing a polarized sample beam of broadband radiation onto the sample, said beam having a multitude of polarization states;
collecting radiation modified by the sample by means of an objective; and
analyzing by means of a polarizing element and dispersing the radiation modified by and collected from the sample to provide a polarimetric spectrum, wherein no substantial relative change in polarization state between the radiation and the sample beam is caused by relative motion between optical elements employed in the focusing, collecting and analyzing; and
deriving information on optically detectable properties of the sample from said polarimetric spectrum.
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