ILLUMINATION MODE SELECTOR AND ASSOCIATED OPTICAL METROLOGY TOOL

• Main Authors: LIU, Xuewen, AKKERMANS, Johannes, Antonius, Gerardus, DE ZWART, Siebe, Tjerk, NGAI, Anthony, Kwok, Yu, FAGGINGER AUER, Bastiaan, Onne
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 15.11.2023
• Subjects: APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED THEREFOR; CALCULATING; CINEMATOGRAPHY; COMPUTING; COUNTING; DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS, THE OPTICAL OPERATION OF WHICH ISMODIFIED BY CHANGING THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIUM OF THEDEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF THE INTENSITY,COLOUR, PHASE, POLARISATION OR DIRECTION OF LIGHT, e.g.SWITCHING, GATING, MODULATING OR DEMODULATING; ELECTROGRAPHY; FREQUENCY-CHANGING; HOLOGRAPHY; IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MATERIALS THEREFOR; MEASURING; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICS; ORIGINALS THEREFOR; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHOTOMECHANICAL PRODUCTION OF TEXTURED OR PATTERNED SURFACES,e.g. FOR PRINTING, FOR PROCESSING OF SEMICONDUCTORDEVICES; PHYSICS; TECHNIQUES OR PROCEDURES FOR THE OPERATION THEREOF; TESTING

Disclosed is an illumination mode selector for use in an illumination branch of an optical metrology tool, and an associated optical metrology tool. The illumination mode selector comprises a plurality of illumination apertures; and at least one polarization-changing optical element. Each of the illumination apertures and each of the at least one polarization-changing optical element are individually switchable into an illumination path of the optical metrology tool.