Method and apparatus for measuring feature dimensions using controlled dark-field illumination

摘要

A method and apparatus for measuring feature dimensions uses selective dark-field illumination to illuminate a target from a single direction at a low angle to the plane of the target. Opposing edges of the target elements are distinguished and captured in separate images. The images are filtered using a Gaussian convolution operator and a Laplacian operator. The signs of the filtered images are correlated at various offsets. The relative displacement of the images which produces the maxium correlation value is used to calculate the average dimension of the target elements.