Nikon Corporation

Kazuhiko Fukazawa

Takeo Oomori

Koichiro Komatsu

Yoshihiko Fujimori

Yuji Kudo

Yoshiaki Kohama

Mari Sugihara

Futoshi Mori

Shinsuke Takeda

Hiroshi Hirose

Yuwa Ishii

Yasuto Kawashima

Mari Yamamoto

There is provided an inspection apparatus, including: an illuminator configured to irradiate a pattern, a detector configured to detect a reflected light from the pattern, and a calculator configured to compare a first change and a second change to calculate a deviation between the first and second changes. The first change which is a change, of a detection result of a pattern formed by a plurality of first exposure conditions, with respect to the first exposure conditions. The second change which is a change, of a detection result of a reflected light, from a pattern, generated by irradiating the pattern with the illumination light. The pattern is formed by a plurality of second exposure conditions each having a predetermined interval in a range which has at least one part overlapping with a range of the first exposure conditions, with respect to the second exposure conditions.

Inspection apparatus and inspection method

A surface inspection apparatus () has a stage () for supporting a wafer () on which predetermined patterns have been formed by exposure using an exposure device (); an illumination system () for irradiating an illuminating light on the surface of the wafer () supported by the stage (); an imaging device () for detecting light from the surface of the wafer () on which illuminating light has been irradiated, and outputting a detection signal; and an image processing unit () for determining the focus state during exposure, on the basis of the detection signal sent from the imaging device ().

Inspection apparatus, inspection method, exposure method, and method for manufacturing semiconductor device

Using a substrate on which a structure has been formed with a plurality of sets of processing conditions, the present disclosure provides an evaluation device that evaluates one of said sets of processing conditions with high precision. This evaluation device is provided with an illumination system that uses illuminating light to illuminate a wafer on which a pattern has been provided via exposure using a plurality of sets of exposure conditions, including first exposure conditions and second exposure conditions; a light-receiving system and an imaging unit the detect light coming from the surface of the wafer; and a computation unit that, on the basis of detection results obtained by the imaging unit using first diffraction conditions and second diffraction conditions that differ in terms of illumination conditions and/or detection conditions, and that estimates the first exposure conditions used when the wafer is exposed.

Evaluation method and device, processing method, and exposure system

There is provided an inspection apparatus which inspects a substrate supporting portion configured to support a substrate during an exposure performed by an exposure apparatus. The apparatus includes: a irradiation unit configured to irradiate, with an illumination light beam, a surface of the substrate on which a pattern has been formed by an exposure by the exposure device; a detecting unit configured to detect reflected light from a pattern in the irradiated surface; a focusing state computation unit connected to the detection unit and configured to determine a focusing state of the pattern of the substrate, based on a detection result of the reflected light beam detected by the detection unit; and an inspection unit connected to the focusing state computation unit and configured to inspect the substrate supporting portion based on the focusing state determined by the focusing state computation unit.

Inspection method, inspection apparatus, exposure control method, exposure system, and semiconductor device

A surface inspection apparatus includes: a detection unit configured to detect a first detection signal according to a first diffracted light beam and a second detection signal according to a second diffracted light beam; a storage unit which is configured to store a first reference data and a second reference data; and a determination unit which is configured to determine a processing condition of the pattern in the substrate as an inspection object substrate, based on consistency between the first detection signal and the first reference data, and consistency between the second detection signal and the second reference data.

Surface inspection apparatus, method for inspecting surface, exposure system, and method for producing semiconductor device

A surface inspection apparatus includes: an irradiation unit; a detection unit configured to detect a first detection signal according to a first light beam and a second detection signal according to a second light beam; a providing unit which is configured to provide a first reference data and a second reference data; and a determination unit which is configured to determine a processing condition of the pattern in the substrate as an inspection object substrate, based on consistency between the first detection signal and the first reference data, and consistency between the second detection signal and the second reference data.

There is provided an inspection method for inspecting a substrate supporting portion configured to support a substrate during an exposure performed by an exposure apparatus, the method including: irradiating a surface of the exposed substrate with an illumination light beam; detecting reflected light from a pattern in the irradiated surface; determining a focusing state at the time of exposing the pattern of the substrate based on the detected reflected light; and inspecting a state of the substrate supporting portion based on the focusing state.

In an evaluation device, an analyzer is rotated so that the azimuth of the transmission axis of the analyzer has an inclination angle of 90 degrees&#xb1;3 degrees with respect to the transmission axis of a polarizer. An imaging camera captures a regularly reflected image of a wafer under each condition, and an image processing unit evaluates the shape of a repeating pattern and detects dose defects and focus defects on the basis of the two images of the wafer captured by the imaging camera.

Evaluation device and evaluation method

A surface inspection apparatus and a surface inspection method aim to securely deal with finer repetition pitch without shortening the wavelength of illumination light. To this end, the apparatus includes a unit illuminating repetitive pattern(s) formed on the substrate surface to be inspected with linearly polarized light, a unit setting to an oblique angle an angle between the direction of an intersecting line of a vibration plane of the linearly polarized light on the substrate surface and the repetition direction of repetitive pattern(s), a unit extracting a polarized light component perpendicular to the vibration plane of the linearly polarized light, from light having been emitted from the repetitive pattern(s) in a specular direction, and a unit detecting a defect of the repetitive pattern(s) according to the light intensity of the polarized light component.

Surface inspection apparatus and surface inspection method

A defect inspection apparatus for inspecting a defect of a substrate as an object to be inspected comprises an illumination optical system for illuminating the substrate, a receiving optical system for receiving diffracted light from the substrate and a polarizing element provided in either one of the illumination optical system or the receiving optical system.

Defect inspection apparatus, defect inspection method and method of inspecting hole pattern

In an evaluation device an analyzer is rotated so that the azimuth of the transmission axis of the analyzer has an inclination angle of 90 degrees&#xb1;3 degrees with respect to the transmission axis of a polarizer. An imaging camera captures a regularly reflected image of a wafer under each condition, and an image processing unit evaluates the shape of a repeating pattern and detects dose defects and focus defects on the basis of the two images of the wafer captured by the imaging camera.

A surface inspecting apparatus includes an illumination optical system irradiating linearly polarized light to a wafer surface under a plurality of inspection conditions; an imaging optical system capturing an image of the wafer formed by polarization components having an oscillation direction different from that of the linearly polarized light as part of reflected light from the wafer surface irradiated by the linearly polarized light under the plurality of inspection conditions; and an image-processing apparatus for extracting for individual pixels an image having the smallest signal intensity from among images of the wafer captured under the plurality of inspection conditions by the imaging optical system, and for inspecting for the presence of defects in a repeated pattern of the wafer based on an inspection image of the wafer generated by connecting each of the extracted pixels.

Surface inspecting apparatus and surface inspecting method

A surface inspection apparatus includes units illuminating repetitive patterns formed on a surface of a suspected substance and measuring a variation in an intensity of regular reflection light caused by a change in shapes of the repetitive patterns, units illuminating the repetitive patterns with linearly polarized light, setting an angle formed between a repetitive direction of the repetitive patterns and a direction of a plane of vibration of the linearly polarized light at a tilt angle, and measuring a variation in a polarized state of the regular reflection light caused by the change in the shapes of the repetitive patterns, and a unit detecting a defect of the repetitive patterns based on the variation in the intensity and the variation in the polarized state of the regular reflection light.

Growing community of inventors

Kamakura, Japan

Kazuhiko Fukazawa