Time-domain optical metrology and inspection of semiconductor devices

1 . A method for semiconductor device metrology, the method comprising:

creating a time-domain representation of wavelength-domain measurement data of light reflected by a patterned structure of a semiconductor device; wherein the semiconductor device comprises multiple semiconductor device portions that are positioned at different z-axis locations, the multiple semiconductor device portions comprise the patterned structure;

selecting one or more relevant portions of time-domain representation and at least one irrelevant portion of the time domain representation; wherein the selecting is based, at least in part, on a sensitivity of the method to at least one attribute of at least one semiconductor device portion of the multiple semiconductor device portion;

determining one or more measurements of one or more parameters of interest of the patterned structure by performing processing using the one or more relevant portions of the time-domain representation.

2 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the selecting is made to reduce sensitivity to correlations between one or more relevant semiconductor portions and at least one irrelevant semiconductor portion.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting is made to provide a defined tradeoff between a sensitivity to one or more attributes of one or more relevant semiconductor device portions and a sensitivity of the solution to one or more attributes of at least one irrelevant semiconductor device portion.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting is made for a illumination wavelength range and another selecting is made for a different illumination wavelength range.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting is made for a collection wavelength range and another selecting is made for a different collection wavelength range.

6 . The method according to claim 1 , comprising obtaining one or more selecting criteria, wherein the selecting comprises applying the one or more selecting criteria.

7 . The method according to claim 6 wherein the obtaining comprises determining the one or more selecting criteria.

8 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the determining of the one or more measurements of the one or more parameters of interest of the patterned structure is also responsive to additional information.

9 . The method according to claim 1 comprising obtaining one or more measurements of one or more parameters of interest of a patterned structure of an other semiconductor device, and comparing (a) the one or more measurements of the one or more parameters of interest of the patterned structure of the other semiconductor device to (b) the one or more measurements of the one or more parameters of interest of the patterned structure of the semiconductor device.

10 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising adjusting one or more parameters of an optical metrology tool based on the determined measurements.

11 . A non-transitory computer readable medium that stores instructions for:

creating a time-domain representation of wavelength-domain measurement data of light reflected by a patterned structure of a semiconductor device; wherein the semiconductor device comprises multiple semiconductor device portions that are positioned at different z-axis locations, the multiple semiconductor device portions comprise the patterned structure;

selecting one or more relevant portions of time-domain representation and at least one irrelevant portion of the time domain representation; wherein the selecting is based, at least in part, on a sensitivity of the instructions to at least one attribute of at least one semiconductor device portion of the multiple semiconductor device portion; and

determining one or more measurements of one or more parameters of interest of the patterned structure by performing processing using the one or more relevant portions of the time-domain representation; and

adjusting one or more parameters of an optical metrology tool based on the determined measurements.

12 . The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 11 , wherein the selecting is made to reduce sensitivity to correlations between one or more relevant semiconductor portions and at least one irrelevant semiconductor portion.

13 . The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 11 , that further stored instructions for adjusting one or more parameters of an optical metrology tool based on the determined measurements.