Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Eiji Imai

Hiroyuki Yamashita

Yukihisa Mohara

Yoshio Morishige

Mamoru Kobayashi

Hideki Fukushima

Koichi Nagoya

Masami Ooyama

Hideyuki Okamoto

Masami Makuuchi

Hisaaki Kanai

A defect inspection apparatus includes a light irradiation unit irradiating a sample placed on a table unit with illumination light, a detection optical system forming a scattered light image from the sample and detecting the generated scattered light image through an image sensor, a processing unit receiving a signal from the image sensor of the detection optical system that detects the scattered light image, generating an image of the scattered light, and detecting a defect of the sample by processing the generated image, an output unit outputting the defect image processed by the image processing unit, and a control unit controlling the stable unit, the light irradiation unit, the detection optical system, and the image processing unit. The image processing unit includes an image generation unit that receives the signal and generates the image, a correction unit that corrects lightness discontinuity and a defect detection unit for image processing.

Inspection apparatus and inspection method

An inspection apparatus includes a wafer stage for carrying a wafer, an illumination module which irradiates an inspection beam on the wafer carried on the wafer stage, a detection module which detects scattering rays or reflection rays from the wafer on the wafer stage and outputs an image signal, a coordinates control module which stores information about the arrangement of individual inspection areas on the wafer, and an imperfect area recognition module which recognizes, on the basis of the inspection area arrangement information stored in the coordinates control module, an imperfect inspection area interfering with a wafer edge.

In a foreign matter inspection apparatus comprising: irradiating unit for irradiating inspection light to an inspection area of an article to be inspected; intensity detecting unit for detecting intensity of either reflected light or scattered light, which is generated from the inspection area by irradiating thereto the inspection light; position detecting unit for detecting a position of either the reflected light or the scattered light within the inspection area; and deciding unit for deciding whether or not a foreign matter is present within the inspection area; the foreign matter inspection apparatus is comprised of: display unit capable of displaying thereon both a threshold image in which the threshold value is indicated over an entire area of the inspection area, and a detection sensitivity image indicated by being converted from the threshold image.

Foreign matter inspection method and foreign matter inspection apparatus

Selection with alignment marks of an optimal template, its identification and similarity judgment are conducted by a calculation function of a correlation value provided to a foreign matter inspection apparatus. In other words, the foreign matter inspection apparatus includes unit for registering feature points of alignment marks formed on a surface of an inspected object, unit for collecting image data of the alignment marks formed on the surface of the inspected object and a data processor for extracting a feature point from the image data and calculating a correlation value of both feature points, and registers the image data of the alignment mark on the basis of a threshold value of the correlation value.

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Hitachinaka, Japan

Eiji Imai