Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.

Eiji Nishihara

Atsushi Imamura

Hiroki Fujimoto

Hiroshi Sano

Junichi Shiomi

Noriyuki Kondo

Yumi Hayakawa

The present invention provides a technique to identify layout of surface regions of an object by image area segmentation. A plurality of images is acquired by imaging an object under a plurality of mutually different illumination conditions. By performing area segmentation on this plurality of images, the layouts of the plurality of image areas which is different from the layout of the object surface regions is obtained. Then, the layout of the surface regions on the object is identified based on the layouts of the plurality of image areas.

Surface region identification by image area segmentation

A pattern-element extractor (), one of functions implemented by a computer, extracts a plurality of pattern elements from a reference image, a region of which is displayed on a display (). An input part () accepts an operator's selection of one out of the plurality of pattern elements as a reference pattern element, and a distinguishability checker () checks whether the selected pattern element is distinguishable from the other pattern elements and usable as the reference pattern element for pattern matching. A result of the check is notified to the operator, and an appropriate one out of the pattern elements in the reference image can be selected as the reference pattern element, by referring to the result of the check made by the distinguishability checker (). Thus, misrecognition of the reference pattern element used for detecting a position of a target image relative to the reference image in pattern matching is prevented.

Apparatus, method, and program for assisting in selection of pattern element for pattern matching

A film thickness measurement apparatus has an image pickup part () for acquiring a plurality of single-band images corresponding to a plurality of wavelengths, and the image pickup part () acquires a plurality of reference single-band images representing a pattern on a reference substrate. A correction factor setting part () performs setting of a plurality of correction factors in accordance with distances from a specified pixel by using a plurality of reference single-band images. Subsequently, the image pickup part () acquires a plurality of measurement single-band images representing a pattern on an objective substrate and corrects a value of the specified pixel for each of a plurality of measurement single-band images by using the value of the specified pixel and values of pixels surrounding the specified pixel and the correction factors. A spectral reflectance calculation part () thereby calculates a reflectance at a measurement point on the objective substrate which corresponds to the specified pixel on the basis of the corrected value of the specified pixel with high accuracy.

Apparatus and method for measuring spectral reflectance and apparatus for measuring film thickness

A two-dimensional image of a substrate surface targeted for polishing is periodically picked up, and the image is analyzed to obtain an entropy H, Hof the two-dimensional image. An end point of polishing is then determined according to the entropy H, H. Alternatively, other image characteristic value such as a difference statistic of the image may be employed instead of the entropy H, H

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Kyoto, Japan

Eiji Nishihara