Hitachi, Ltd.

Other

Keiichi Okamoto

Asahiro Kuni

Yukio Kembo

Mineo Nomoto

Akira Inagaki

Yoshio Matsumoto

Yoshihiro Komeyama

Hideaki Suzuki

Minoru Ikeda

Susumu Aiuchi

Toshimitsu Hamada

Hideaki Doi

Ryuichi Funatsu

Toshijiro Ohashi

Yukio Matsuyama

Kozo Nakahata

Hisashi Onari

Kichie Matsuzaki

Mitsuharu Hayakawa

Hiroshi Makita

Roberto Kishikawa

Hiroshi Kitazawa

Yasujiro Oshima

Ryuuichi Funatsu

A development support system for supporting new product development activities including designing, manufacturing experimental models and testing the functions of the experimental models and for providing an environment for the cooperative activities of a plurality of members of a development project team has a model storage for storing product models, resource models of resources to be used for product development and product development activity models; a target storage for storing target values of schedules of product development, and the cost and the performance of the product; an estimating unit for estimating schedules of product development and the cost and the performance of the product on the basis of the models stored in the model storage; a support unit for support the operations of the members of the development project team for making reference to the models, the target values and the estimated values, and changing and particularizing the models, the target values and the estimated values; a notifying unit for deciding, when each model is changed or particularized, whether or not the estimated values meet the corresponding target values and, when the estimated values do not meet the corresponding target values, for notifying the members of the development project team to that effects; and a unit for monitoring electronic mail necessary for carrying out tasks essential to the development of the product, extracting information relating to the progress of tasks essential to carrying out the development of the product, and providing the members of the development project team with information about the progress of the tasks.

Development support system

A method and apparatus for alignment for use in X-ray exposure or the like wherein a mask is provided having a formation of an alignment pattern made up of at least one linear segment formed in a peripheral section of the mask and a wafer is provided having a formation of an alignment pattern formed in a same direction as the alignment pattern of the mask and made up of linear segments. An illuminating arrangement illuminates a light to the mask alignment pattern along a direction inclined to the alignment direction and the mask alignment pattern and the wafer alignment pattern are imaged and transformed into a video signal. An A/D converts the video signal into a digital signal and stores the digital signal in a memory. The digital video signal is read out from the memory and averaged in a mask alignment pattern by removing a shadow portion caused by the mask alignment pattern and additionally averaged in a wafer alignment pattern area with an averaged wafer alignment pattern signal and an averaged wafer alignment pattern signal being provided. Relative displacement between the mask and the wafer is detected from the averaged mask alignment pattern signal and the averaged wafer alignment pattern signal and the mask and wafer are aligned by moving at least one of the mask and wafer so that displacement between the mask and the wafer does not exist.

Method and apparatus for alignment

An apparatus for testing printed wiring patterns for use in combination with an apparatus including a plurality of dedicated pattern generators for generating arcuate wiring patterns. In contrast to the conventional LSI pattern inspection effected with design data being inputted, the apparatus can inspect the pattern including curved portions peculiar to the printed wiring pattern. Although the conventional LSI inspection technique involves an impracticably increased amount of design data, the invention allows the test or inspection to be performed at a high speed with an improved reliability and can be applied to the inspection of any pattern including arcuate patterns. By inputting graphic data in conformance with the order for generating patterns, pattern generation can be accomplished not only through ordinary raster scan but also by other various scanning methods.

Pattern test apparatus including a plurality of pattern generators

The present invention relates, in a projection aligner wherein a mask and a wafer are held proximate to one another and wherein a circuit pattern depicted on the mask is transferred onto the wafer, to a method of detecting the respective positions of the mask and the wafer for the relative positioning between the mask and the wafer. To the end of dispensing with the withdrawal of a microscope objective in such a way that the objective of a microscope for detecting the mask and the wafer and projection light, for example, an X-ray, are prevented from interfering, thereby to achieve the enhancement of throughput and to permit the detection of the positions of the mask and the wafer even during projection, the present invention consists in that the objective of the microscope is inclined with respect to a perpendicular to the plane of the mask or the plane of the wafer being a plane to-be-detected, so as not to interfere with the projection light, for example, the X-ray, whereby the circuit pattern can be transferred while the relative positions of the mask and the wafer are being detected.

Projection alignment method and apparatus

A pattern checking apparatus carries out the detection of candidate defects through a primary selection with a sensitivity high enough to detect any existing defect, and then carries out a detailed analysis by a controlling processor for a pattern including the periphery of the detected candidate defect through a secondary selection in which a candidate defect which is not a defect in a practical sense is removed from candidates, so that only real defects are detected.

Pattern checking apparatus

A positioning apparatus comprising marks for position detection which are respectively formed on a plurality of objects, means to cause optical images of the position detecting marks from the respective objects to reach a scanning mechanism, the scanning mechanism scanning the optical images at the same time, a plurality of detectors, each of which consists of a slit and a photoelectric element, the slits being arranged on an identical optical axis so that the optical images of the position detecting marks of the respective objects as scanned by the scanning mechanism may be detected respectively and individually, and a driving device which moves one of the plurality of objects on the basis of signals from the detectors, to effect the relative positioning of the plurality of objects.

Apparatus for relatively positioning a plurality of objects by the use

The present invention discloses a scanning photoelectric microscope in which a first reference object to be measured which is mounted on a stationary support is disposed relative to a second object to be measured which is disposed on a slidable table so as to form on both sides of the first object to be measured two indication intervals, which are caused to coincide with each other for alignment. The scanning photoelectric microscope according to the present invention comprises a scanning device for scanning an image reflected from the two indication intervals formed by the first and second objects to be measured at a constant speed to effect parallel displacement, a marker device for detecting positions of a scanned image corresponding to those of motion of the scanning device, and a circuit for detecting the two indication intervals detected by the scanning device in terms of time in response to a signal from the marker device, the second object to be measured being shifted until the two indication intervals coincide with each other.

Scanning photoelectric microscope

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Keiichi Okamoto