Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi High-tech Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd.

Hitachi High-tech Corporation

Other

Minolta Company, Ltd.

Hitachi Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd.

Hitachi High-electronics Corporation

Akira Hamamatsu

Minori Noguchi

Hidetoshi Nishiyama

Takahiro Jingu

Yoshimasa Ohshima

Sachio Uto

Yuta Urano

Shunji Maeda

Hisae Shibuya

Hiroyuki Nakano

Tetsuya Watanabe

Kenji Watanabe

Toshihiko Nakata

Maki Tanaka

Kenji Oka

Toshiyuki Nakao

Yoshimasa Oshima

Yoshimasa Ooshima

Toshifumi Honda

Takanori Ninomiya

Yoshio Morishige

Shigenobu Maruyama

Masahiro Watanabe

Taketo Ueno

Masami Makuuchi

Hisashi Hatano

Yukihisa Mohara

Seiji Otani

Takahiro Togashi

Yuji Takagi

Shunichi Matsumoto

Kaoru Sakai

Yukihiro Shibata

Nobuhiro Obara

Kazuma Ogawa

Yoshio Kimoto

Hideo Ota

Chie Shishido

Atsushi Miyamoto

Shinichi Suzuki

Toshiro Higuchi

Ryuichi Yoshida

Manabu Yano

Takashi Okawa

Kenji Mitomo

Kazunori Nemoto

Takanori Kondo

In order to prevent an erroneous determination of an on-film defect, the sensitivity of the post-inspection is reduced so that a film swelling due to a minute defect would not be detected. Classification is performed to determine whether a defect is at least one of an on-film defect and a film swelling, by performing a coordinate correction on the result of a post-inspection by an actual-defect fine alignment using the result of a pre-inspection performed with two-stage thresholds, and by checking defects against each other. In addition, classification is performed to determine whether a defect is at least one of an on-film defect and a film swelling by, during the post-inspection, preparing instruction data from information of the refractive index and thickness of a film formed on a wafer and comparing the instruction data with a signal intensity ratio of a detection system.

Defect classification device, inspection device, and inspection system

An inspection device capable of inspecting a foreign matter even during rotation acceleration/deceleration of an object under inspection. The inspection device includes a rotation-and-translation unit configured to rotate and translate the object under inspection; a light intensity modulation unit configured to modulate intensity of laser light to irradiate the object under inspection; a light intensity control unit configured to control the light intensity modulation unit; an object-under-inspection-operation detection unit configured to calculate information about a linear speed at a laser irradiation position on the object under inspection; a data processing unit configured to start foreign matter and defect inspection when a rotation speed of the object under inspection reaches a predetermined speed and a rotation-and-translation control unit configured to determine a time required for a next single rotation of a rotation stage, and apply, to a translation stage, a translation control value for moving the translation stage.

Inspection device and inspection method thereof

The invention includes a pulse oscillated light source, an illumination unit that guides light output from the light source to a sample, a scanning unit that controls a position at which the sample is scanned by the illumination unit, a light converging unit that converges light reflected from the sample, a first photoelectric conversion unit that outputs an electric signal corresponding to the light converged by the light converging unit, an AD conversion unit that converts the electric signal output from the first photoelectric conversion unit into a digital signal in synchronization with pulse oscillation of the light source, a linear restoration unit that processes a digital signal converted by the AD conversion unit in synchronization with a pulse oscillation output by the AD conversion unit and corrects nonlinearity of the first photoelectric conversion unit, a defect detection unit that detects a defect of the sample based on an output of the linear restoration unit, and a processing unit that obtains and outputs a position and a size of the defect detected by the defect detection unit.

Defect inspection device

The present invention provides an inspection device that is capable of detecting foreign matter with high accuracy, the inspection device including: a light source; an electro-optic element on which light from the light source is incident and which changes a phase of the light into at least two states; and a controller. The controller corrects a phase fluctuation of the electro-optic element itself, using intensity modulation characteristics of the eletro-optic element which are obtained by changing an applied voltage that is input to the electro-optic element.

Examination device

Proposed is an inspection device that is provided with: an illuminating optical unit that irradiates a discretionary region of a sample with light; a control unit that gives instructions to the illuminating optical unit; and at least one detection unit that detects light transmitted from the sample. The illuminating optical unit includes a light source unit that generates light, and an electrooptic element unit to which the light generated by the light source unit is inputted, and on the basis of the instructions given from the control unit, the electrooptic element unit adjusts the light to be in a desired polarization state, said light having been generated by the light source unit, and irradiates the sample with the light.

Inspection device

A defect inspecting method and apparatus for inspecting a surface state including a defect on a wafer surface, in which a polarization state of a laser beam irradiated onto the wafer surface is connected into a specified polarization state, the converted laser beam having the specified polarization state is inserted onto the wafer surface, and a scattering light occurring from an irradiated region where the laser beam having the specified polarization state is irradiated, is separated into a first scattering light occurring due to a defect on the wafer and a second scattering light occurring due to a surface roughness on the wafer. An optical element for optical path division separates the first and second scattering lights approximately at the same time.

Defect inspecting method and defect inspecting apparatus

To detect an infinitesimal defect, highly precisely measure the dimensions of the detect, a detect inspection device is configured to comprise: a irradiation unit which irradiate light in a linear region on a surface of a sample; a detection unit which detect light from the linear region; and a signal processing unit which processes a signal obtained by detecting light and detecting a defect. The detection unit includes: an optical assembly which diffuses the light from the sample in one direction and forms an image in a direction orthogonal to the one direction; and a detection assembly having an array sensor in which detection pixels are positioned two-dimensionally, which detects the light diffused in the one direction and imaged in the direction orthogonal to the one direction, adds output signals of each of the detection pixels aligned in the direction in which the light is diffused, and outputs same.

Defect inspection device and defect inspection method

A defect inspection apparatus includes: a seed light generator including a pulse signal generator that generates a pulse signal and a polarization modulator that outputs pulse light of any one of two polarization states orthogonal to each other in synchronization with the pulse signal output from the pulse signal generator; a wavelength converting unit including a branching mechanism that branches the pulse light output by the polarization modulator of the seed light generator using polarization and a converting unit that wavelength-converts the pulse light branched by the branching mechanism into beams of two different wavelengths, respectively; an illumination optical system that illuminates a surface of an inspected target material with the beams of the two different wavelengths converted by the wavelength converting unit; a detection optical system including a detecting unit that detects light generated by the beams of the two different wavelengths illuminated by the illumination optical system; and a signal processing system including a distributor that distributes a signal based on the light detected by the detecting unit of the detection optical system for each wavelength, on the basis of the pulse signal output from the pulse signal generator, and a defect determining unit that processes a signal based on the light distributed by the distributor and determines a defect.

Defect inspection apparatus and defect inspection method

An inspection device is required to detect a minute defect, that is, to have high sensitivity as semiconductor devices become finer. There are some approaches for improving the sensitivity. One is to shorten the wavelength of illuminating light radiated onto a sample. This is because, assuming that the wavelength of the illuminating light is &#x3bb;, I&#x221d;&#x3bb;is established between the magnitude of scattered light is I and &#x3bb;. Another approach is to use illuminating light including multiple wavelengths. An approach for taking in more scattered light generated from the sample is also possible. However, an optical system suitable for these approaches has not been sufficiently found in conventional techniques. One feature of the present invention is to detect a defect by using a Wolter optical system including a Wolter mirror.

A model based measurement method is capable of estimating a cross-sectional shape by matching various pre-created cross-sectional shapes with a library of SEM signal waveforms. The present invention provides a function for determining whether or not it is appropriate to create a model of a cross-sectional shape or a function for verifying the accuracy of estimation results to a conventional model based measurement method, wherein a solution space (expected solution space) is obtained by matching library waveforms and is displayed before measuring the real pattern by means of model based measurement. Moreover, after the real pattern is measured by means of model based measurement, the solution space (real solution space) is obtained by matching the real waveforms with the library waveforms and is displayed.

Shape measurement method, and system therefor

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Yokohama, Japan

Akira Hamamatsu