Status polling

US7181368B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• KLA-Tencor Technologies Corp. · US

Inventors

• Krishnamurthy Bhaskar · San Jose, US
• Mark J. Roulo · Milpitas, US
• John S. Taylor · San Jose, US
• Lawrence R. Miller · New York, US
• Paul T. Russell · Scotts Valley, US
• Jason Z. Lin · Saratoga, US
• Eliezer Rosengaus · Palo Alto, US
• Richard Wallingford · San Jose, US
• Kishore Bubna · Fremont, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 18, 2004
• Grant date: Feb 20, 2007
• Expiry date: Oct 18, 2024

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G05B2219/37224
• WIPO field: Control
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

An inspection system for detecting anomalies on a substrate. The inspection system has a sensor array for generating image data. A first high speed network is coupled to the sensor array and receives and communicates the image data. An array of process nodes is coupled to the first high speed network, and receives and processes the image data to produce anomaly reports. Each process node has an interface card coupled to the first high speed network, that receives the image data from the first high speed network and formats the image data according to a high speed interface bus protocol. The interface card sets a register indicating whether a predetermined amount of image data has been stored in a memory, and the process node reads the register to determine whether the predetermined amount of image data has been stored in the memory, and initiates image processing when the register indicates that the predetermined amount of image data has been stored in the memory.