AutoKMS 100 Reticle CD-SEM

A CD-SEM is a metrology and inspection tool used to examine very small patterned features on photomasks or reticles and to measure their dimensions. In this class of equipment, an electron beam is used instead of visible light so that fine line and edge features can be evaluated at small scales.

A critical-dimension scanning electron microscope forms an electron beam, scans it across a patterned surface, and detects the emitted or backscattered signal to build an image. The resulting contrast is used to inspect feature edges and measure pattern dimensions on reticles and related photomasks.

The instrument is used as a measurement system rather than a patterning tool. It compares feature shape and size against process targets so that mask fabrication and downstream lithography can be controlled more tightly.

This type of tool sits in the mask or reticle inspection flow, before the mask is used in wafer exposure. It is used after reticle fabrication steps that create the patterned image and before the reticle is released for lithography.

It supports process control for lithography by checking critical dimensions on the reticle rather than on the wafer. That makes it part of the quality-control path linking mask manufacture to wafer pattern transfer.

The tool is used for reticle inspection and critical-dimension measurement in semiconductor lithography. It is relevant to patterned mask verification, edge placement evaluation, and inspection of small printed features on reticles.

In general, CD-SEM tools are used wherever precise measurement of small patterned structures is needed on mask-side process flows, especially in advanced lithography and other pattern-definition environments.