Hough Transform as a quality test tool for electron beam lithography

In this study, we use Hough Transform as a test tool to investigate the quality of the electron beam lithography. A graphene like thin film of metal layer is fabricated on top of GaAs substrate by electron beam lithography. Hough Transform is applied to the SEM images of the fabricated pattern and the quality of the lithography process is quantitatively investigated. All the existing critical dimensional measurements on the SEM images which would otherwise take several days are done in a single step. The power and potential use of Hough Transform for the SEM image inspection especially for the quality test of nano-patterning processes is demonstrated. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.