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Model‐based shape from shading for microelectronics applications
Author(s) -
Nissenboim A.,
Bruckstein A. M.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international journal of imaging systems and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.359
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1098-1098
pISSN - 0899-9457
DOI - 10.1002/ima.20065
Subject(s) - microelectronics , computer science , wafer , inverse problem , minification , algorithm , convergence (economics) , process (computing) , inverse , shading , artificial intelligence , mathematics , materials science , geometry , computer graphics (images) , economic growth , mathematical analysis , optoelectronics , economics , programming language , nanotechnology , operating system
Model‐based shape from shading (SFS) is a promising paradigm introduced by Atick et al. [Neural Comput 8 (1996), 1321–1340] in 1996 for solving inverse problems when we happen to have a lot of prior information on the depth profiles to be recovered. In the present work we adopt this approach to address the problem of recovering wafer profiles from images taken using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). This problem arises naturally in the microelectronics inspection industry. A low‐dimensional model, based on our prior knowledge on the types of depth profiles of wafer surfaces, has been developed, and based on it the SFS problem becomes an optimal parameter estimation. Wavelet techniques were then employed to calculate a good initial guess to be used in a minimization process that yields the desired profile parametrization. A Levenberg–Marguardt (LM) optimization procedure has been adopted to address ill‐posedness of the SFS problem and to ensure stable numerical convergence. The proposed algorithm has been tested on synthetic images, using both Lambertian and SEM imaging models. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 16, 65–76, 2006