Other

Hitachi Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd.

Masami Ikota

Mari Nozoe

Yasuhiro Yoshitake

Aritoshi Sugimoto

Kenji Watanabe

Masataka Shiba

Seiji Ishikawa

Fumio Mizuno

Toshimitsu Hamada

Seiji Isogai

Ikuo Suzuki

Isao Miyazaki

Jun Nakazato

Yuichi Ohyama

Yoshiharu Shigyo

Makoto Ariga

Tetsuji Yokouchi

Terushige Asakawa

Hidekuni Sugimoto

Tetsuya Watanabe

Hisato Nakamura

Yuko Inoue

Junichi Taguchi

Wakana Shinke

A process management system in accordance with the present invention includes inspection apparatuses for inspecting defects on a wafer, the inspection apparatuses being connected through a communication network, inspection information and image information obtained from these inspection apparatuses being collected to construct a data base and an image file, therein definition of defects is given by combinations of elements which characterize the defect based on the inspection information and the image information obtained from the inspection apparatuses. By giving definition of the defect, characteristics of the defect can be subdivided and known. Therefore, the cause of a defect can be studied.

Process management system

An apparatus for inspecting foreign matter in repeated micro-miniature patterns formed upon a surface of an object to be inspected, comprising: an inspection light illuminating device for irradiating an inspection light directed upon the surface of the object to be inspected, on which the repeated micro-miniature patterns are formed; a scattered light detector for detecting scattered light of the inspection light being scattered upon the surface said object to be inspected; means for obtaining a first information related to a foreign matter attaching upon the surface of said object to be inspected, which is obtained on a basis of the detection of said scattered light by said scattered light detector; an illumination means for applying a bright field illumination upon the surface of the object to be inspected, on which the repeated micro-miniature patterns are formed; means for picking up the image of the foreign matter, under a bright field illumination by said illumination means; means for obtaining a second information related to said foreign matter, depending upon an image of said foreign matter, which is obtained on a basis of said picking up of the image by said image picking up means under the bright field illumination; and means for displaying said first information and said second information, both being related to said foreign matter, on a display screen thereof.

Inspecting method and apparatus for repeated micro-miniature patterns

Process control system

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes fetching inspection chip information including information of a dust-particle/fault on an inspection chip by irradiating the inspection chip of a semiconductor wafer with an optical beam and by detecting the scattering/diffracting beam of the optical beam, fetching reference chip information as information of a reference chip without a dust-particle/fault, comparing the inspection chip information and the reference chip information to determine a dust-particle/fault, and determining whether the dust-particle/fault is located on a pattern or outside of the pattern by matching between the dust-particle/fault information and design pattern data as data of a prepared pattern. The dust-particle/fault is determined to be a fatal dust-particle/fault when the dust-particle fault is located on the pattern or to be a non-fatal dust-particle fault when the dust-particle/fault is located outside of the pattern.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor device

Growing community of inventors

Higashiyamato, Japan

Masami Ikota