Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Ngr Limited

Akio Ishikawa

Tadashi Kitamura

Mitsunori Numata

Ken Ozawa

Kwang-soo Kim

Mitsuhiro Togashi

Sean Park

An imaging apparatus includes an illumination light source to output an illumination light, an illumination optical system to transmit the illumination light toward a sample, an imaging optical system to transmit light reflected from the sample, a stage to move the sample in a predetermined transfer direction, and a photographing unit to receive the reflected light. The imaging apparatus may include one or more diffraction grids located at conjugate focal planes of the sample. The operation of the photographing unit may be synchronized with a movement of the sample by the stage to obtain an image in accordance with a time delay integration method.

Imaging apparatus and imaging method

An apparatus for detecting a defect of an object may include a light emitter configured to emit straight polarized lights having different polarized directions, a spatial filter having openings through which the straight polarized lights selectively pass, an optical member configured to condense the straight polarized lights, which pass through the openings, on the object, and a light detector configured to detect lights reflected from the object. Thus, the defect may be accurately detected in a short time.

Apparatus and method of inspecting a defect of an object

Apparatus and method evaluate a wafer fabrication process for forming patterns on a wafer based upon design data. Within a recipe database, two or more inspection regions are defined on the wafer for analysis. Patterns within each of the inspection regions are automatically selected based upon tendency for measurement variation resulting from variation in the fabrication process. For each inspection region, at least one image of patterns within the inspection region is captured, a reference pattern, represented by one or both of (a) one or more line segments and (b) one or more curves, is automatically generated from the design data. An inspection unit detects edges within each of the images and registers the image with the reference pattern. One or more measurements are determined from the edges for each of the selected patterns and are processed within a statistical analyzer to form statistical information associated with the fabrication process.

Defect and critical dimension analysis systems and methods for a semiconductor lithographic process

A system and method is described for evaluating a wafer fabrication process for forming patterns on a wafer based upon data. Multiple inspection regions are defined on the wafer for analysis. For each inspection region, images of patterns within the inspection region are captured, edges are detected, and lines are registered to lines of a reference pattern automatically generated from the design data. Line widths are determined from the edges. Measured line widths are analyzed to provide statistics and feedback information regarding the fabrication process. In particular embodiments defects are identified as where measured line widths lie outside boundaries determined from the statistics. In particular embodiments, lines of different drawn width and/or orientation are grouped and analyzed separately. Measured line widths may also be grouped for analysis according to geometry such as shape or proximity to other shapes in the inspection region to provide feedback for optical proximity correction rules.

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Yokohama, Japan

Akio Ishikawa