Patents Assigned to Microvision, Inc.
  • Patent number: 8519983
    Abstract: Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, an input device may be utilized in conjunction with a scanned beam display or the like, or may be based on the scanning platform as used in a scanned beam display such as a MEMS based scanner. An input event such as illumination of a photodetector or reflection of a scanned beam off of a retroreflector may be correlated with a timing event of the scanning platform such as a refresh signal, or a horizontal and vertical sync signals. The correlation of the timing event may be representative of an X-Y location, and in some embodiments of a Z location, that may be utilized to provide input data back to a host device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: Microvision, Inc.
    Inventors: Randall B. Sprague, Christian Dean DeJong, Gregory T. Gibson
  • Patent number: 8519333
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a charged particle system for reticle or semiconductor wafer defects inspection and review, and more particularly, relates to an E-beam inspection tool for reticle or semiconductor wafer defects inspection and review without gravitational AMC settling. The charged particle system is an upside down electron beam inspection system with an electron beam aimed upward. The face down design may prevent AMC from gravitational settling on the inspected face of the specimen during inspection, thereafter having a cleaner result compared with conventional face-up inspection system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: Hermes Microvision Inc.
    Inventors: Chiyan Kuan, Yi-Xiang Wang, Chung-Shih Pan, Zhonghua Dong, Zhongwei Chen
  • Patent number: 8511838
    Abstract: A scanning projector includes a MEMS device with a scanning mirror that sweeps a light beam in two dimensions. A laser limit comparison circuit determines a metric from measured peak scan angles and measured light output. The metric is compared to a threshold and a light source is shut down when the metric exceeds the threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2013
    Assignee: Microvision, Inc.
    Inventor: Bruce C. Rothaar
  • Patent number: 8514205
    Abstract: A drive circuit includes a generator and a driver. The generator generates a signal having a period and a varying amplitude during a driving portion of the period, and the driver is coupled to the generator and drives a plate of an electrostatically drivable plant with the signal. The drive circuit may be used to drive a mirror plate of a comb-drive MEMS mirror.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2013
    Assignee: Microvision, Inc.
    Inventors: Wyatt O. Davis, Gregory T. Gibson, Thomas W. Montague, Robert J. Dunki-Jacobs, Michael P. Weir
  • Patent number: 8506090
    Abstract: An image projection system (103) includes an image projector (104) and an image orientation device (106). The image orientation device (106) can be configured to cause a reference line (110) associated with an image (108) to remain aligned in a predetermined orientation on a projection surface (109) regardless of projection system motion. A second image orientation device (206) can be included as well. The second image orientation device (206) can be configured to cause portions of an image (208) to move with projection system motion while a reference line (210) remains stable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: Microvision, Inc.
    Inventors: Ray L. Nicoli, Andrew T. Rosen, David Lashmet
  • Publication number: 20130202186
    Abstract: A method for measuring critical dimension (CD) includes steps of: scanning at least one area of interest of a die to obtain at least one scanned image; aligning the scanned image to at least one designed layout pattern to identify a plurality of borders within the scanned image; and averaging distances each measured from the border or the plurality of borders of a pattern associated with a specific type of CD corresponding to the designed layout pattern to obtain a value of CD of the die. The value of critical dimensions of dies can be obtained from the scanned image with lower resolution which is obtained by relatively higher scanning speed, so the above-mentioned method can obtain value of CD for every die within entire wafer to monitor the uniformity of the semiconductor manufacturing process within an acceptable inspection time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2013
    Publication date: August 8, 2013
    Applicant: HERMES MICROVISION INC.
    Inventor: HERMES MICROVISION INC.
  • Publication number: 20130194555
    Abstract: A piezoelectric actuated device includes one or more areas of piezoelectric material coupled to a substrate. The piezoelectric material may be placed on regions of the substrate that exhibit the greatest curvature and stress when the device is vibrating according to a desired structural Eigenmode of vibration. The piezoelectric material may have a non-uniform density.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2012
    Publication date: August 1, 2013
    Applicant: MICROVISION, INC.
    Inventors: Wyatt O. Davis, Utku Baran, Dean R. Brown, Hakan Urey
  • Patent number: 8497475
    Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer readable medium for charged particle beam inspection of a sample comprising at least one sampling region and at least one skip region is disclosed. The method, apparatus and computer readable medium comprise receiving an imaging recipe which at least comprises information of the area of the sampling and skip regions; calculating a default stage speed according to the imaging recipe; calculating an alternative stage speed at least according to the default stage speed, the sampling region area information, and the skip region area information; calculating at least one imaging scan compensation offset at least according to the alternative stage speed; and inspecting the sample at the alternative stage speed while adjusting the motion of the charged particle beam according to the imaging scan compensation offsets, such that the charged particle beam tightly follows the motion of the stage and images only the sampling regions on the sample.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2013
    Assignee: Hermes-Microvision, Inc.
    Inventors: Chang Chun Yeh, Shih-Tsuan Chang
  • Publication number: 20130188037
    Abstract: A method for measuring critical dimension (CD) includes steps of: scanning at least one area of interest of a die to obtain at least one scanned image; aligning the scanned image to at least one designed layout pattern to identify a plurality of borders within the scanned image; and averaging distances each measured from the border or the plurality of borders of a pattern associated with a specific type of CD corresponding to the designed layout pattern to obtain a value of CD of the die. The value of critical dimensions of dies can be obtained from the scanned image with lower resolution which is obtained by relatively higher scanning speed, so the above-mentioned method can obtain value of CD for every die within entire wafer to monitor the uniformity of the semiconductor manufacturing process within an acceptable inspection time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2013
    Publication date: July 25, 2013
    Applicant: HERMES MICROVISION INC.
    Inventor: HERMES MICROVISION INC.
  • Patent number: 8491135
    Abstract: An apparatus determines a cursor position in an illumination field of a projector. An obstruction is detected in the illumination field. The cursor position is determined as the point on the obstruction furthest from where the obstruction crosses a border of the illumination field. A distance to the point on the obstruction is determined and compared to a distance to a point not on the obstruction. Gestures are recognized as a function of movement of the obstruction and the determined distances.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: Microvision, Inc.
    Inventors: Margaret K. Brown, George Thomas Valliath, David R. Nash
  • Publication number: 20130182939
    Abstract: A method for measuring critical dimension (CD) includes steps of: scanning at least one area of interest of a die to obtain at least one scanned image; aligning the scanned image to at least one designed layout pattern to identify a plurality of borders within the scanned image; and averaging distances each measured from the border or the plurality of borders of a pattern associated with a specific type of CD corresponding to the designed layout pattern to obtain a value of CD of the die. The value of critical dimensions of dies can be obtained from the scanned image with lower resolution which is obtained by relatively higher scanning speed, so the above-mentioned method can obtain value of CD for every die within entire wafer to monitor the uniformity of the semiconductor manufacturing process within an acceptable inspection time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2013
    Publication date: July 18, 2013
    Applicant: HERMES MICROVISION INC.
    Inventor: HERMES MICROVISION INC.
  • Publication number: 20130181138
    Abstract: A cellular-type PD unit is proposed and a plurality of the cellular-type PD units is used in pairs in a multi-axis magnetic lens for focusing a plurality of charged beams. First type PD units or second type PD units (called as hybrid PD unit as well) can be applied to cellular-type PD units to flexibly construct sub-lenses. Furthermore, magnetic shielding plates with a plurality of through openings can be placed above and/or below the multi-axis magnetic lens to make magnetic flux leaking out of the multi-axis magnetic lens vanish away rapidly outside the magnetic shielding plates.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 15, 2013
    Publication date: July 18, 2013
    Applicant: HERMES-MICROVISION, INC.
    Inventor: HERMES-MICROVISION, INC.
  • Patent number: 8488224
    Abstract: Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, an electric comb drive scanner comprises a scanning body comprising a mirror supported by one or more flexures along a first axis and one or more support structures coupled to the one or more flexures. One or more drive combs are disposed on the one or more support structures, wherein the drive combs cause the mirror to rotate about the first axis in response to a drive signal applied to the drive combs. The one or more support structures are tuned to reduce non-uniformity of warping of the support structures to reduce variation in disengagement of the drive combs along a length of the drive combs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2013
    Assignee: Microvision, Inc.
    Inventor: Dean R. Brown
  • Publication number: 20130153782
    Abstract: The present invention provides two ways to form a special permeability-discontinuity unit inside every sub-lens of a multi-axis magnetic lens, which either has a simpler configuration or has more flexibility in manufacturing such as material selection and mechanical structure. Accordingly several types of multi-axis magnetic lens are proposed for various applications. One type is for general application such as a multi-axis magnetic condenser lens or a multi-axis magnetic transfer lens, another type is a multi-axis magnetic non-immersion objective which can require a lower magnetomotive force, and one more type is a multi-axis magnetic immersion objective lens which can generate smaller aberrations. Due to using permeability-discontinuity units, every multi-axis magnetic lens in this invention can also be electrically excited to function as a multi-axis electromagnetic compound lens so as to further reduce aberrations thereof and/or realize electron beam retarding for low-voltage irradiation on specimen.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 4, 2012
    Publication date: June 20, 2013
    Applicant: Hermes Microvision, Inc.
    Inventors: Weiming Ren, Zhongwei Chen
  • Patent number: 8466762
    Abstract: A magnetically actuated system includes a conductor and a magnetic field apparatus to generate a magnetic field. The magnetic field apparatus includes magnets and magnetically permeable materials to focus the magnetic field in areas of the conductor that produce a drive torque when the conductor carries a current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2013
    Assignee: Microvision, Inc.
    Inventors: Randall B. Sprague, Dean R. Brown, Matthew Ellis
  • Publication number: 20130142383
    Abstract: An imaging system (100) includes a housing (101). A control circuit (224) disposed within the housing (101). A projector (102) is disposed within the housing (101) and is operable with the control circuit (224). The projector (102) is configured to create images (104) with an image cone (106). A gesture recognition device (103) is disposed within the housing (101) and is operable with the control circuit (224). The gesture recognition device (103) is configured to detect gestures (107) in a gesture recognition cone (108). The projector (102) and the gesture recognition device (103) can be arranged within the housing (101) such that the image cone (106) and the gesture recognition cone (108) exit the housing (101) without overlap.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 1, 2011
    Publication date: June 6, 2013
    Applicant: MICROVISION, INC.
    Inventors: P. Selvan Viswanathan, Mark O. Freeman, Sridhar Madhavan, George Thomas Valliath, Jari Honkanen
  • Patent number: 8446342
    Abstract: A scanned beam display device scans a beam to paint an image. The beam is scanned in two dimensions and includes at least one sinusoidal component. Phase offsets are introduced to provide different scan trajectories for successive traversals of the image field of view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2013
    Assignee: Microvision, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Champion, Margaret K. Brown, Mark O. Freeman
  • Patent number: 8445862
    Abstract: An apparatus basically uses a simple and compact multi-axis magnetic lens to focus each of a plurality of charged particle beams on sample surface at the same time. In each sub-lens module of the multi-axis magnetic lens, two magnetic rings are respectively inserted into upper and lower holes with non-magnetic radial gap. Each gap size is small enough to keep a sufficient magnetic coupling and large enough to get a sufficient axial symmetry of magnetic scale potential distribution in the space near to its optical axis. This method eliminates the non-axisymmetric transverse field in each sub-lens and the round lens field difference among all sub-lenses at the same time; both exist inherently in a conventional multi-axis magnetic lens.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2013
    Assignee: Hermes Microvision, Inc.
    Inventors: Zhongwei Chen, Weiming Ren, Kenichi Kanai, Xuedong Liu
  • Publication number: 20130120819
    Abstract: A scanning beam projection system includes a scanning mirror having a fast-scan axis and a slow-scan axis. Movement on the fast-scan axis is controlled by a fast-scan scanning mirror control system. The control system receives position information describing angular displacement of the mirror. A fast-scan drive signal is generated that causes the scanning mirror to oscillate at a resonant frequency with a varying amplitude.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 14, 2011
    Publication date: May 16, 2013
    Applicant: Microvision, Inc.
    Inventors: Bruce C. Rothaar, Joel Sandgathe
  • Publication number: 20130120428
    Abstract: A projection apparatus memorizes settings as a function of location, orientation, elevation, or any combination. The projection apparatus recalls the settings when the location, orientation, elevation, or combination of the projection apparatus matches memorized values. Memorized settings may include projector settings, image source settings, audio output settings, audio source settings, and the like.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 10, 2011
    Publication date: May 16, 2013
    Applicant: MICROVISION, INC.
    Inventors: Mark O. Freeman, George Thomas Valliath, Jari Honkanen, David Lashmet