Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Nuflare Technology, Inc.

Hiromu Inoue

Riki Ogawa

Eiji Sawa

Hiroyuki Ikeda

Takeshi Fujiwara

Akira Ono

Nobutaka Kikuiri

Masataka Shiratsuchi

Hiroyuki Tanizaki

Kentaro Okuda

Hiroshi Tsukada

Katsuki Ohashi

Shuichi Tamamushi

Takanao Touya

Hidenori Sato

Tomohide Watanabe

Toru Tojo

Shinji Sugihara

Ryoichi Hirano

Masatoshi Hirono

Shinichi Imai

Takashi Hirano

Ryoji Yoshikawa

Masami Ikeda

Satoshi Imi

Takehiko Nomura

Satoshi Endo

According to one aspect of the present invention, a pattern inspection apparatus includes a uniform sizing processing circuit configured to resize a line width of a design pattern being a basis of the figure pattern by using a uniform sizing amount which has been set in advance; a reference image generation circuit configured to generate a reference image corresponding to the secondary electron image by performing image development on data of the design pattern whose line width has been resized; and a line-width dependent correction circuit configured to correct a line width of a figure pattern in the secondary electron image by using a correction amount which has been set in advance depending on a line width size.

Pattern inspection device and pattern inspection method

Provided is an inspection apparatus including: an irradiation source irradiating a first pattern formed on an inspection target object with an electron beam; a detection circuit acquiring a first inspection image generated from the first pattern by irradiation; a filter circuit performing smoothing using a local region having a first size in a direction parallel to a first outline included in the first inspection image and a second size smaller than the first size in a direction perpendicular to the first outline and acquiring a second inspection image including a second outline generated by the smoothing; and a comparison circuit comparing the second inspection image with a predetermined reference image.

Inspection apparatus and inspection method

A multiple electron beam inspection apparatus includes a correction circuit that corrects a partial secondary electron image of partial secondary electron images configuring a secondary electron image and obtained by irradiation with a corresponding primary electron beam of the multiple primary electron beams such that the partial secondary electron image becomes close to a uniform beam partial image when an irradiation region of a primary electron beam corresponding to the partial secondary electron image is irradiated with a uniform beam obtained by equalizing shapes and sizes of all primary electron beams, by using a function for individual correction of each primary electron beam, for each of the plural partial secondary electron images, and an inspection circuit that performs inspection using plural partial secondary electron images each corrected.

Multiple electron beam inspection apparatus and multiple electron beam inspection method

According to one aspect of the present invention, a multiple electron beam inspection apparatus includes a reference image generation circuit generating reference images corresponding to the secondary electron images, in accordance with an image generation characteristic of a secondary electron image by irradiation of one beam; and a correction circuit generating corrected reference images in which, on the basis of deviation information between a figure pattern of the secondary electron image by irradiation of the one beam of the multiple primary electron beams and a figure pattern of a secondary electron image by irradiation of another beam different from the one beam of the multiple primary electron beams, a shape of a figure pattern of a reference image corresponding to the figure pattern of the secondary electron image by the irradiation of the another beam in the reference images is corrected.

A high resolution optical image is acquired by irradiating a mask with light emitted by a light source via a high resolution optical system. A low resolution optical image is acquired by irradiating the same mask with the light via a low resolution optical system. The design data of the mask pattern is corrected in light of shapes and dimensions determined according to at least one of a manufacturing process of the mask and a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device to be manufactured by transferring the mask pattern to a semiconductor wafer. Reference image data are generated corresponding to the high resolution optical image and the low resolution optical image. Whether the defect detected in the high resolution optical image is true or false is determined according to information of the defect detected in the low resolution optical image.

Inspection method and inspection apparatus

An inspection apparatus comprising, an optical system emitting light having a predetermined wavelength, illuminating a sample while the light is converted into light having a polarization plane not in the range of &#x2212;5 degrees to 5 degrees and 85 degrees to 95 degrees with respect to a direction of a repetitive pattern on the sample, an optical system for acquiring an image and forming said image on an image sensor using a lens, a half-wave plate, a first image sensor, a second image sensor, an inspection analyzer, wherein these differ in a transmission axis direction, a processor that obtains an average gray level and a standard deviation in each predetermined unit region of the image, and a defect detector, wherein a resolution limit defined by a wavelength of the light source and a numerical aperture of the lens is a value in which the pattern is not resolved.

Inspection apparatus

According to one embodiment, a pattern characteristic detection apparatus for a photomask includes a detection-data creating portion, a reference-data creating portion, an extracting portion, a first area-setting portion, a detecting portion and an collecting portion. The detection-data creating portion is configured to create detection data on the basis of an optical image of a pattern formed on a photomask. The reference-data creating portion is configured to create reference data of the pattern. The extracting portion is configured to extract a pattern for pattern characteristic detection and positional information of the extracted pattern. The first area-setting portion is configured to set an area where pattern characteristics are to be detected, and configured to extract a target pattern. The detecting portion is configured to detect pattern characteristics of the target pattern within the area. In addition, the collecting portion is configured to collect the detected pattern characteristics.

Pattern characteristic-detection apparatus for photomask and pattern characteristic-detection method for photomask

A first output value evaluation device obtains an average value of output values of optical image data for each of unit regions and creates a distribution map of an average value in an inspected region. A first defect history management device creates a distribution map related with the shape of the pattern from the distribution map of the average value and holds the created distribution map. A second output value evaluation device obtains at least one of a variation value and deviation of the output value of each pixel in the unit region. A defect determination device compares the obtained value with a threshold value. A second defect history management device holds information of the output value determined as a defect in the defect determination device. A defect/defect history analysis device analyzes, and checks the information from the first defect history management device and the second defect history management device.

Inspection apparatus and inspection apparatus system

In a position measuring method, a mask including first patterns to be transferred and second patterns not to be transferred is prepared. The position coordinates of the second patterns are measured with a position measuring apparatus and an inspection system. First position correction data is generated based on the position coordinates of the second patterns. A difference is obtained between the measured position coordinates of the second patterns and the first position correction data is corrected using the obtained difference. Second position correction data is generated from the corrected first position correction data. An optical image including the position coordinates of the first and second patterns is acquired. The position coordinates of the first patterns of the optical image are corrected using a difference between the position coordinates of the second patterns of the optical image and of the second patterns based on the second position correction data.

Position measuring method, misplacement map generating method, and inspection system

An inspection apparatus comprising, a focal position detector that detects a reference focal position of an image plane of a sample from a variation of an output value in optical image data of the sample, the output value being acquired by changing a distance between a first lens and the sample, and detects an optimum focal position of an inspection from the reference focal position, an image processor that obtains at least one of either an average gradation value in each predetermined unit region or a variation of a gradation value in the unit region with respect to the optical image data obtained at the optimum focal position, and a defect detector that detects a defect of the sample based on at least one of either the average gradation value or the variation of the gradation value.

A defect inspection apparatus including an illumination optical system, an image formation optical system, an image data conversion unit, a singular part detecting circuit, an optical path length adjusting mechanism, and a defect determining unit. The image formation optical system forms an optical image derived from light passing through first and second optical paths. The image data conversion unit converts, to image data, each of the optical images. The singular part detecting circuit detects a singular part in each of the image data. The optical path length adjusting mechanism equalizes the optical path lengths of the first and second optical paths. The defect determining unit determines a defect on the basis of singular part detection.

Defect inspection apparatus using images obtained by optical path adjusted

A method and system for imaging an object to be inspected and obtaining an optical image; creating a reference image from design pattern data; preparing an inspection recipe including one or more templates and parameter settings necessary for the inspection; checking the pattern and the template against each other, and selecting the reference image which corresponds to the template; detecting first and second edges in the selected reference image in accordance with the parameter setting using determined coordinates as a reference; detecting first and second edges in the optical image, this optical image corresponds to the selected reference image; and determining an inspection value by acquiring the difference between the line width of the optical image and the reference image using the first edge and second edge of the reference image and the first edge and second edges of the optical image.

Inspection system and method for inspecting line width and/or positional errors of a pattern

A sample support apparatus is provided in which a XY-table and a Z-table moving along a height direction are disposed in a Z-reference surface as a height reference, and in which a sample is disposed at a predetermined height position while supported by the Z-table, the sample support apparatus comprising, a height correction unit that controls movement of the Z-table, and a Z-sensor that is provided on the Z-reference surface to measure the height from the Z-reference surface, wherein a measuring surface is aligned along the same axis with respect to a measuring position of the sample, the height of the measuring surface from the Z-reference surface is measured by the Z-sensor, the height correction unit moves the Z-table according to the measured value of the height so that the sample is disposed at the predetermined height position.

Sample support apparatus

A defect detection method comprising, irradiating light from a light source in an optical system and obtaining a plurality of optical images of a sample having a repeated pattern of a size smaller than a resolution of the optical system; while changing the conditions of the optical system, performing correction processing for the optical images with the use of at least one of a noise filter and a convolution filter; shifting a position of the other optical images based on any of the plurality of optical images, obtaining a relationship between shift amounts of the other optical images and a change of correlation of a gray scale value between the plurality of optical images, and performing positional alignment of the optical images based on the shift amount obtained when the correlation is highest, performing defect detection of the sample with the use of the optical images after the positional alignment.

Defect detection method

A sample, which has a mesa portion having a pattern thereon, is placed on a Z table. Light is irradiated to the mesa portion through an optical system and light reflected by the mesa portion is received to measure a height of the mesa portion. A height map of the mesa portion is created based on a height of a corner position. A height using the height map is corrected based on a deviation of a measured value from a target value, and a temporal variation of a focal position of light irradiated to the mesa portion. An optical image of the pattern is obtained based on the corrected height of the mesa portion. The optical image is compared with a reference image and a defect is determined when a difference value between the optical image and the reference image is more than a predetermined threshold value.

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Yokohama, Japan

Hiromu Inoue