Claims
- 1. A semiconductor wafer microscopy system comprising:
a plurality of microscopes generating video signals of microscopic views of one or more semiconductor wafers; a video capture system to digitize the video signals; a multiplexor to selectively couple the video signals from the microscopes to the video capture system; a server coupled to the video capture system to communicate the digitized video signals to one or more remote client computers for displaying the digitized video.
- 2. The semiconductor wafer microscopy system of claim 1, wherein the multiplexor is operable from the remote client computers.
- 3. The semiconductor wafer microscopy system of claim 2, wherein the multiplexor sequentially selects each of the video signals.
- 4. The semiconductor wafer microscopy system of claim 1, wherein the server streams the digitized video signal to the client.
- 5. The semiconductor wafer microscopy system of claim 1, wherein the microscope is a scanning electron microscope.
- 6. The semiconductor wafer microscopy system of claim 1, wherein the microscope is a scanning tunneling microscope.
- 7. The semiconductor wafer microscopy system of claim 1, wherein the video capture system further includes an encoder-decoder (CODEC) to compress the digitized video signals.
- 8. A software system executing on a server of a semiconductor microscopy system in which a video signal generated by a microscope is digitized by a video capture system and communicated to a plurality of remote computing systems comprising:
a producer software module to retrieve the digitized video signal generated by the video capture system, wherein producer software module stores the digitized video signal within a software frame buffer; a consumer software module to retrieve the digitized video signal from the software frame buffer and to process the digitized video signal for communication to one or more remote computing systems; and a software synchronization mechanism to synchronize access to the frame buffer by the producer software module and consumer software modules.
- 9. The software system of claim 8, wherein the software system is implemented with object-oriented software.
- 10. The software system of claim 8, wherein the consumer software module compresses the digitized video signals.
- 11. The software system of claim 8, wherein the consumer software module compares a predefined threshold to statistical data of the processed digitized video signal in order to detect a change from a first frame to a successive frame.
- 12. The software system of claim 10, wherein the consumer software module retransmits a previously broadcast frame when the statistical data is below the predefined threshold.
- 13. A system for inspecting a wafer using a plurality of remote computing systems comprising:
a computer comprising a processor, a memory, and a computer-readable medium operatively coupled together; an operating environment executed by the processor from the computer-readable medium; a video capture card coupled to the computer to digitize video signals generated by a microscope; a pair of producer and consumer software modules executing on the processor from the computer-readable medium, wherein the producer software module retrieves digitized video data from the video capture card and communicates the digitized video data to the consumer software module for communication to the remote computing systems.
- 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the producer and consumer software modules are implemented with object-oriented software.
- 15. The system of claim 13, wherein the consumer software module compresses the digitized video signals.
- 16. The system of claim 13, wherein the consumer software module processes the digitized video signal and compares a predefined threshold to statistical data of the processed digitized video signal in order to detect a change from a first frame to a successive frame.
- 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the consumer software module retransmits a previously broadcast frame to the remote client computers when the statistical data is below the predefined threshold.
- 18. A computerized method for inspecting semiconductor wafers comprising:
generating a video signal of a view of the semiconductor wafer for each of a plurality of microscopes; selectively coupling the video signals to a video capture system for digitizing one of the video signals; and communicating the selected digitized video signal to one or more remote client computers.
- 19. The method of claim 18 wherein selectively coupling the video signals includes receiving commands from the remote client computers.
- 20. The method of claim 18 wherein communicating the selected digitized video signal includes streaming the video signal.
- 21. The method of claim 18 wherein communicating the selected digitized video signal includes communicating the digitized video signal over a wide area network.
- 22. The method of claim 18 wherein communicating the digitized video signal includes communicating the digitized video signal over the Internet.
- 23. The method of claim 18 wherein communicating the digitized video signal includes communicating the digitized video using a transport control protocol-Internet protocol.
- 24. The method of claim 18 wherein communicating the digitized video signal includes:
processing the digitized video signal; comparing a predefined threshold to statistical data of the processed digitized video signal in order to detect a change from a first frame to a successive frame; and retransmitting the first frame instead of the successive frame as a function of the comparison.
- 25. A set of application program interfaces embodied on a computer-readable medium for execution on a server of a semiconductor microscopy system in which a video signal generated by a microscope is digitized by a video capture system and communicated to a plurality of remote client computers comprising:
a first interface to retrieve the digitized video signal generated by the video capture system and to store the digitized video signal within a software frame buffer; and a second interface to retrieve the digitized video signal from the software frame buffer and to process the digitized video signal for communication to the remote client computers.
- 26. The set of application program interfaces of claim 25, wherein the second interface causes the server to stream the video signal to the remote client computers.
- 27. The set of application program interfaces of claim 25, wherein the second interface causes the server to communicate the digitized video signal over a wide area network.
- 28. The set of application program interfaces of claim 25, wherein the second interface causes the server to communicate the digitized video signal over the Internet.
- 29. The set of application program interfaces of claim 25, wherein the second interface causes the server to:
compare a predefined threshold to statistical data of the processed digitized video signal in order to detect a change from a first frame to a successive frame; and retransmit the first frame instead of the successive frame as a function of the comparison.
- 30. The set of application program interfaces of claim 25, wherein the set of application program interfaces conforms to the Component Object Model (COM).
Parent Case Info
[0001] This application is a Divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/298,502, filed Apr. 23, 1999, which is based on U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/082,846 entitled “Host Based Frame Monitor for Synchronized Video Acquisition and Compression” filed Oct. 9, 1998, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/103,669 also entitled “Host Based Frame Monitor for Synchronized Video Acquisition and Compression” filed Apr. 23, 1998, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60082846 |
Apr 1998 |
US |
|
60103669 |
Oct 1998 |
US |
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09298502 |
Apr 1999 |
US |
Child |
10118844 |
Apr 2002 |
US |