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Method for de-noising electron microscope image

An electron microscope and image technology, applied in the field of sample analysis, can solve problems such as artifacts and affecting the accuracy of measurement indicators

Pending Publication Date: 2022-03-11
INTERUNIVERSITAIR MICRO ELECTRONICS CENT (IMEC VZW)
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Typically, these methods require additional condition files to generate those corresponding synthetic images, which may cause additional artifacts and thus affect the accuracy of measurements such as LER / LWR and CD

Method used

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  • Method for de-noising electron microscope image
  • Method for de-noising electron microscope image
  • Method for de-noising electron microscope image

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

Embodiment Construction

[0074] figure 1 Shown are steps of a method for denoising an electron microscope (EM) image according to an embodiment.

[0075] Method 10 includes the step of selecting a patch of an 11EM image, wherein the patch includes a plurality of pixels. Subsequently, the following steps i)-iii) are performed on the patch:

[0076] i) replacing the value of one pixel of the patch, preferably the central pixel, with the value of a different, preferably randomly selected, pixel from the same EM image;

[0077] ii) determining 14 the denoising value of the one pixel based on the values ​​of the other pixels in the patch; and

[0078] iii) Substitute the value of 15 for the one pixel with the determined denoised value.

[0079] In particular, steps i) to iii) form a denoising 12 step for this one pixel in the patch.

[0080] In particular, steps i) to iii) may be repeated for each pixel in the selected patch until every noisy pixel within the patch is replaced by a denoised value.

[...

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Abstract

The present invention generally relates to image processing. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for de-noising electron microscope (EM) images. The method comprises the step of selecting a patch of an EM image, where the patch comprises a plurality of pixels, where the following steps are performed on the patch: i) replacing the value of one pixel, preferably the value of the center pixel, of the patch with the values of different, preferably randomly selected pixels from the same EM image; ii) determining a de-noising value for the one pixel based on values of other pixels in the patch; and iii) replacing the value of the one pixel with the determined de-noising value.

Description

technical field [0001] The present disclosure relates generally to image processing, and in particular to a method and apparatus for denoising electron microscope (EM) images. The present disclosure further relates to a method for analyzing a sample. Background technique [0002] A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a widely used imaging tool in the semiconductor industry. For example, SEM is used to measure the critical dimension (CD) and roughness characteristics of resist patterns. [0003] The electrical characteristics of electronic circuits formed by photolithographic patterning techniques are significantly affected by features such as line edge (LER) and line width (LWR) roughness. Therefore, it is important to analyze these characteristics. However, CD-SEM images inherently contain significant noise levels, and therefore, accurate measurement of LER / LWR and CD of SEM images is a significant challenge. In particular, traditional image processing techniques and ...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): G06T5/00G06T7/00G06T7/13G06T7/73
CPCG06T7/001G06T7/13G06T7/73G06T2207/10061G06T2207/20081G06T2207/20084G06T2207/30148G06T5/70G06T5/50G06T7/0004G06T2207/30141G01R31/307G06T5/60
Inventor B·戴伊S·霍尔德G·S·卡尔V·M·布兰克S·S·S·瓦达库普杜帕拉亚姆
Owner INTERUNIVERSITAIR MICRO ELECTRONICS CENT (IMEC VZW)