Hitachi, Ltd.

Hiroto Nagatomo

Yuzo Taniguchi

Sadao Shimoyashiro

Masao Sakata

Seiji Ishikawa

Isao Miyazaki

Kazuhiko Matsuoka

Jun Nakazato

Kimio Muramatsu

Yuichi Ohyama

Tsutomu Okabe

Osamu Satou

Yuzaburo Sakamoto

Shuichi Hanashima

Yutaka Ebara

Taizo Hashimoto

Jun Suzuki

Hiroshi Kikuchi

Minoru Ikeda

Yoshitoshi Ito

Shigeharu Kimura

Chusuke Munakata

Hisashi Maejima

Toyohide Hamada

Kyo Suda

Takemasa Iwasaki

Kanji Kinameri

Shinobu Hase

Tetsuya Takagaki

Mikihito Saito

Keishin Fujikawa

Hiroyuki Kawaji

Hisao Seki

Hitoshi Horimuki

Shirou Terasaki

Masakuni Akiba

The present invention provides data analysis stations respectively for a probing tester and an automatic particle inspection machine. And, in the data analysis station, the coordinates on which the disposition of the chips are described on a product basis are equal to those on which the locations of the defects are described. Further, the station provides a function of determining which of the chips each defect belongs to. These data analysis stations are connected through a communication line. The present invention is capable of analyzing the data on a chip basis, resulting in being able to grasp the relation between how the defects are caused on each chip and the product character of the chip.

Inspection data analyzing system

The present invention provides data analysis stations respectively for a probing tester and an automatic particle inspection machine. And in the data analysis station, the coordinates on which the disposition of the chips are described on a product basis are equal to those on which the locations of the defects are described. Further, the station provides a function of determining which of the chips each defect belongs to. These data analysis stations are connected through a communication line. The present invention is capable of analyzing the data on a chip basis, resulting in being able to grasp the relation between how the defects are caused on each chip and the product character of the chip.

Inspection system and method using separate processors for processing different information regarding a workpiece such as an electronic device

An apparatus for carrying a variety of products for effectively processing and carrying plural kinds of works such as semiconductor wafers includes a plurality of processing stations for processing plural kinds of works, a carriage system for carrying plural kinds of works, and a transfer system for delivering works between the carriage system and a processing station. A method for carrying a variety of products is realized in which the carriage system simultaneously carries plural kinds of works between the plurality of processing stations and stops at a predetermined position of the transfer system, whereas the transfer system identifies and delivers the desired kind of work to and from the carriage system.

Method and apparatus for carrying a variety of products

A pattern defect inspection apparatus detects presence or absence of a defect in a pattern formed on a semiconductor wafer by scanning the pattern normally to the surface thereof by a coherent light beam of a predetermined spot size, detecting reflected diffraction lights generated thereby and processing the detected lights. It comprises an abnormal direction signal detector including photo-detectors having wide light receiving areas arranged in a plurality of spatial areas which the reflected diffraction lights from a normal pattern do not normally reach, a normal pattern detector including photo-detectors having large light receiving areas arranged in a plurality of spatial areas which the reflected diffraction lights from the normal pattern reach, and a defect discriminator for determining if the abnormal direction signals are due to a true defect or not in accordance with the signals from the abnormal direction signal detector and the normal pattern detector.

Pattern defect inspection apparatus

A manufacturing system in which the automatic control of the system and the automatic control of a process management are organically coupled, thereby to sharply reduce the number of workers to be engaged in the manufacture. In order to establish both the versatility necessary for multiple type of treatment and the high efficiency necessary for large-quantity treatments, the arrangement of respective treatment sections is made the job-shop-type, and the construction of treating devices themselves included in the treatment sections is made the flow-shop-type, to achieve the consecutive automation. In order to also automate the management of the process, a stocker in which unfinished products are put is situated in a specified place of the system such as the central part thereof, while the process is put forward in such a manner that a conveyor machine controlled by a control unit having a computer reciprocates between the stocker and the groups of treatment sections. The manufacturing system is suitable for the fabrication of semiconductor devices which have many kinds of articles where each kind of article needs to be mass-produced.

Manufacturing system

This invention discloses inspection apparatus for detecting unfavorable foreign matters existent on the surface of an object such as semiconductor wafer. The apparatus includes a collimated beam generator portion which projects a collimated beam towards the object to-be-inspected from a side thereof, and a mechanism which senses light reflected from the surface of the object, through a polarizer plate. In accordance with this invention, the signal-to-noise ratio between a detection signal generated by a pattern of the foreign matter to-be-detected and a signal generated by a normal pattern of the object surface and sensed as a noise component can be enhanced.

Method of inspecting the surface of an object and apparatus therefor

A surface treatment device capable of carrying out the surface treatment such as washing or etching of plate-like articles such as semiconductor wafers maintaining high degree of reliability, wherein a surface treating liquid is introduced into a ring-like or a conduit-like treating vessel. The plate-like articles to be treated are moved by a conveyor on a conveyor path having a surface in parallel with the surfaces of the plate-like articles against the stream of the treating liquid in a piece-by-piece manner, so that the surfaces of the plate-like articles are treated, whereby the surfaces of the semiconductor wafers can be desirably treated prior to manufacturing the semiconductor products.

Surface treatment device

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Tokyo, Japan

Hiroto Nagatomo