Kla Tencor Corporation

Kla Corporation

Carl Zeiss Smt Gmbh

Grace H Chen

Lisheng Gao

Robert M Danen

Pavel Kolchin

Markus B Huber

Gildardo Rios Delgado

Richard Wallingford

Lu Chen

Junqing Huang

Rudolf C Brunner

Qiang Q Zhang

Gary V Lopez Lopez

Mikhail Haurylau

John Savee

Junwei Wei

Evgeniia Butaeva

Dan Kapp

Vera (Guorong) Zhuang

Abdurrahman Sezginer

Kenong Wu

Allen Park

Matthew Derstine

Ellis Chang

Jamie Michael Sullivan

Ralph C Wolf

Lawrence Muray

Yalin Xiong

Jinsang Kim

Mark Shi Wang

Se Baek Oh

Xiaochun Li

Keith B Wells

Kai Cao

Khurram Zafar

Daniel L Cavan

Songnian Rong

Vaibhav Gaind

Hawren Fang

Christopher Maher

Derek Mackay

Ping Gu

Pavan Kumar

Paul Donders

Liu-Ming Wu

Amrit Poudel

Felix Lange

Larissa Walter

An optical system includes a bulk material including a fluorine (F)-containing optical material. The bulk material is exposed to an environment at a pressure ranging from atmospheric to vacuum when the bulk material is under extreme ultra-violet (EUV), vacuum ultra-violet (VUV), deep ultra-violet (DUV) and/or UV radiation. The environment includes at least one type of gas or vapor. The at least one type of gas or vapor includes polar molecules.

Protection of optical materials of optical components from radiation degradation

A photoluminescent material can be applied to part of a substrate as part of substrate inspection. The photoluminescent material includes a conjugated polymer having a coiled macroscopic molecular shape and a meta-linkage or an ortho-linkage. The substrate is imaged using an inspection system. The conjugated polymer can be, for example, poly(m-phenylene ethynylene) (PPE) or poly(para-phenylene vinylene) (PPV).

Selective marking of a substrate with fluorescent conjugated polymer probes having a small form factor

A material recovery system for an optical component includes a reservoir containing gas and configured to supply a gas flow containing the gas. The material recovery system also includes an ion beam generator disposed on the reservoir and configured to receive the gas flow and to ionize the gas in the gas flow to generate an ion beam. The ion beam is configured to be directed to the optical component to remove at least a portion of a F-containing optical material degraded by exposure to VUV radiation, DUV radiation, and/or photo-contamination.

Material recovery systems for optical components

A semiconductor-inspection tool scans a semiconductor die using a plurality of optical modes. A plurality of defects on the semiconductor die are identified based on results of the scanning. Respective defects of the plurality of defects correspond to respective pixel sets of the semiconductor-inspection tool. The scanning fails to resolve the respective defects. The results include multi-dimensional data based on pixel intensity for the respective pixel sets, wherein each dimension of the multi-dimensional data corresponds to a distinct mode of the plurality of optical modes. A discriminant function is applied to the results to transform the multi-dimensional data for the respective pixel sets into respective scores. Based at least in part on the respective scores, the respective defects are divided into distinct classes.

Multimode defect classification in semiconductor inspection

Systems and methods increase the signal to noise ratio of optical inspection of wafers to obtain higher inspection sensitivity. The computed reference image can minimize a norm of the difference of the test image and the computed reference image. A difference image between the test image and a computed reference image is determined. The computed reference image includes a linear combination of a second set of images.

Wafer inspection using difference images

Disclosed are apparatus and methods for inspecting a sample. Locations corresponding to candidate defect events on a sample are provided from an inspector operable to acquire optical images from which such candidate defect events are detected at their corresponding locations across the sample. High-resolution images are acquired from a high-resolution inspector of the candidate defect events at their corresponding locations on the sample. Each of a set of modelled optical images, which have been modeled from a set of the acquired high-resolution images, is correlated with corresponding ones of a set of the acquired optical images, to identify surface noise events, as shown in the set of high-resolution images, as sources for the corresponding candidate events in the set of acquired optical images. Otherwise, a subsurface event is identified as a likely source for a corresponding candidate defect event.

Correlating SEM and optical images for wafer noise nuisance identification

Disclosed are apparatus and methods for inspecting a semiconductor sample. Locations corresponding to candidate defect events on a semiconductor sample are provided from an optical inspector operable to acquire optical images from which such candidate defect events are detected at their corresponding locations across the sample. High-resolution images are acquired from a high-resolution inspector of the candidate defect events at their corresponding locations on the sample. Each of a set of modelled optical images, which have been modeled from a set of the acquired high-resolution images, is correlated with corresponding ones of a set of the acquired optical images, to identify surface noise events, as shown in the set of high-resolution images, as sources for the corresponding candidate events in the set of acquired optical images. Otherwise, a subsurface event is identified as a likely source for a corresponding candidate defect event.

Disclosed are apparatus and methods for detecting defects on a semiconductor sample. An optical inspector is first used to inspect a semiconductor sample with an aggressively predefined threshold selected to detect candidate defect and nuisance sites at corresponding locations across the sample. A high-resolution distributed probe inspector includes an array of miniature probes that are moved relative to the sample to scan and obtain a high-resolution image of each site to detect and separate the candidate defect sites from the nuisance sites. A higher-resolution probe is then used to obtain a higher-resolution image of each candidate site to obtain a high-resolution image of each site to separate real defects that adversely impact operation of any devices on the sample from the candidate defects.

Ultra-high sensitivity hybrid inspection with full wafer coverage capability

Methods and systems for determining a configuration for an optical element positioned in a collection aperture during wafer inspection are provided. One system includes a detector configured to detect light from a wafer that passes through an optical element, which includes a set of collection apertures, when the optical element has different configurations thereby generating different images for the different configurations. The system also includes a computer subsystem configured for constructing additional image(s) from two or more of the different images, and the two or more different images used to generate any one of the additional image(s) do not include only different images generated for single collection apertures in the set. The computer subsystem is further configured for selecting one of the different or additional configurations for the optical element based on the different images and the additional image(s).

Determining a configuration for an optical element positioned in a collection aperture during wafer inspection

Disclosed are methods and apparatus for optimizing a mode of an inspection tool. A first image or signal for each of a plurality of first apertures of the inspection tool is obtained, and each first image or signal pertains to a defect area. For each of a plurality of combinations of the first apertures and their first images or signals, a composite image or signal is obtained. Each composite image or signal is analyzed to determine an optimum one of the combinations of the first apertures based on a defect detection characteristic of each composite image. In one aspect, determining an optimum one of the combinations of the first apertures includes selecting a set of one or more individual apertures that result in the highest signal to noise ratio for the defect area, and the method includes setting the optimum combination of the first apertures on the inspection tool and inspecting a sample using such optimum combination of the first apertures.

Apparatus and methods for finding a best aperture and mode to enhance defect detection

Disclosed are methods and apparatus for detecting defects in a semiconductor sample. An inspection tool is used to collect intensity data sets at a plurality of focus settings from each of a plurality of xy positions of the sample. A polynomial equation having a plurality of coefficients is extracted for each of the xy position's collected intensity data sets as a function of focus setting. Each of the coefficients' set of values for the plurality of xy positions is represented with a corresponding coefficient image plane. A target set of coefficient image planes and a reference set of coefficient image planes are then analyzed to detect defects on the sample.

Wafer inspection with focus volumetric method

Disclosed are methods and apparatus for optimizing a mode of an inspection tool. A first image or signal for each of a plurality of first apertures of the inspection tool is obtained, and each first image or signal pertains to a defect area. For each of a plurality of combinations of the first apertures and their first images or signals, a composite image or signal is obtained. Each composite image or signal is analyzed to determine an optimum one of the combinations of the first apertures based on a defect detection characteristic of each composite image.

The present invention includes generating illumination, providing a spatial light modulator (SLM) configured to selectably illuminate one or more portions of a surface of a wafer using the generated illumination, receiving a sets of wafer pattern data indicative of one or more patterns of the wafer, translating the wafer along a direction, selectably controlling a pixel configuration of the SLM to control an illumination pattern on the surface of the wafer, a first pixel configuration illuminating a first set of regions of the wafer at an illumination level, an additional pixel configuration illuminating an additional set of regions at an additional illumination level, wherein a pixel pattern of the SLM based on the received sets of wafer pattern data is configured to move across a surface of the SLM synchronously with the pattern of the translated wafer, and detecting illumination from the surface of the wafer.

System and method for reducing dynamic range in images of patterned regions of semiconductor wafers

In an optical inspection tool, an illumination aperture is opened at each of a plurality of aperture positions of an illumination pupil area one at a time across the illumination pupil area. For each aperture opening position, an incident beam is directed towards the illumination pupil area so as to selectively pass a corresponding ray bundle of the illumination beam at a corresponding set of one or more incident angles towards the sample and an output beam, which is emitted from the sample in response to the corresponding ray bundle of the incident beam impinging on the sample at the corresponding set of one or more incident angles, is detected. A defect detection characteristic for each aperture position is determined based on the output beam detected for each aperture position. An optimum aperture configuration is determined based on the determined defect detection characteristic for each aperture position.

Wafer and reticle inspection systems and methods for selecting illumination pupil configurations

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Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

Grace H Chen