International Business Machines Corporation

Globalfoundries Inc.

Kevin T Wu

Oliver Desmond Patterson

Eric C Harley

A semiconductor substrate inspection system includes an e-beam inspection system configured to deliver electrons to a specimen semiconductor substrate. A sensor is configured to detect reflected electrons that reflect off the surface of the specimen semiconductor substrate. An analysis unit is configured to determine a number of electrons received by the semiconductor substrate, and to determine at least one target region including at least one defect of the semiconductor substrate. A reference image module is in electrical communication with the analysis unit. The reference image module is configured to generate a first digital image having a plurality of pixels, and to adjust a gray-scale level of the pixels included in the target region based on the number electrons included in each pixel to generate a second digital image that excludes the at least one defect.

Method of inspecting a semiconductor substrate

A method of performing inspection alignment point selection for semiconductor devices includes importing, with a computer device, one or more semiconductor design files corresponding to an area of a semiconductor die; aligning a design taken from the one or more semiconductor design files with an image taken from a die of a semiconductor wafer; and selecting an alignment point and recording a portion of the design file corresponding to the alignment point as a master reference image.

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Hopewell Junction, NY, United States of America

Kevin T Wu