Ebara Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Masato Naka

Shinji Yamaguchi

Masahiro Hatakeyama

Takehide Hayashi

Masamitsu Itoh

Hiroyuki Kashiwagi

An inspection apparatus includes beam generation means, a primary optical system, a secondary optical system and an image processing system. Irradiation energy of the beam is set in an energy region where mirror electrons are emitted from the inspection object as the secondary charged particles due to the beam irradiation. The secondary optical system includes a camera for detecting the secondary charged particles, a numerical aperture whose position is adjustable along an optical axis direction and a lens that forms an image of the secondary charged particles that have passed through the numerical aperture on an image surface of the camera. In the image processing system, the image is formed under an aperture imaging condition where the position of the numerical aperture is located on an object surface to acquire an image.

Inspection apparatus

According to one embodiment, a mask inspection apparatus includes a decompression chamber, a holder, a light irradiation unit, a detection unit, an electrode, and a control unit. The holder is provided in the decompression chamber and holds a mask. The light irradiation unit irradiates a major surface of the mask held by the holder with a light. The detection unit is provided in the decompression chamber to detect electrons generated when the major surface of the mask is irradiated with the light. The electrode is provided between the holder and the detection unit and guides the electrons in a direction from the holder toward the detection unit. The control unit compares a detection result of the electrons detected by the detection unit with a reference value.

Mask inspection apparatus and mask inspection method

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Masato Naka