Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Renesas Technology Corp.

Hitachi High-tech Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd.

Other

Hitachi Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd.

Columbia University

Hitachi High-tech Corporation

Hitachi High-electronics Corporation

Hitachi High-technologies Corporaation

Minori Noguchi

Hidetoshi Nishiyama

Yoshimasa Ohshima

Akira Hamamatsu

Takahiro Jingu

Tetsuya Watanabe

Sachio Uto

Kenji Watanabe

Takanori Ninomiya

Shuichi Chikamatsu

Yoshio Morishige

Yukio Kembo

Yukio Kenbo

Yoshitada Oshida

Masataka Shiba

Makoto Murayama

Kenji Aiko

Yasuhiro Yoshitaka

Shunji Maeda

Toshihiko Nakata

Maki Tanaka

Yoshimasa Ooshima

Hirofumi Tsuchiyama

Hisato Nakamura

Shunichi Matsumoto

Kenji Oka

Keiji Sakai

Ryouji Matsunaga

Masahiro Watanabe

Yoshikazu Tanabe

Taketo Ueno

Hiroshi Morioka

Yasuo Yatsugake

Yukio Kenbou

Ichiro Ishimaru

Ichiro Moriyama

Takuaki Sekiguchi

Hiroyuki Nakano

Kei Shimura

Yuji Takagi

Masaaki Ito

Toru Otsubo

Susumu Aiuchi

Hiroaki Shishido

Hisashi Hatano

Masayuki Ochi

Kazuhiko Matsuoka

Yukihisa Mohara

Seiji Otani

Takahiro Togashi

Yoshiharu Shigyo

Hiroshi Yamaguchi

Yukihiro Shibata

Mitsuyoshi Koizumi

Hisafumi Iwata

Makiko Kohno

Chie Shishido

Shigeru Matsui

Takafumi Okabe

Takenori Hirose

Yuzo Taniguchi

Hiroyuki Yamashita

Takahiko Suzuki

Shigeo Otsuki

Masahiko Nakada

Shigeru Abe

Shree Kumar Nayar

Makoto Ono

Hiroshi Kawaguchi

Takashi Hiroi

Kazuo Aoki

Yasuhiro Yoshitake

Tsuneo Terasawa

Ryo Nakagaki

Shinichi Suzuki

Masami Makuuchi

Nobuyuki Akiyama

Hideaki Doi

Hirohito Okuda

Yoshimasa Fukushima

Takashi Kamimura

Yuusuke Oominami

Kenji Mitomo

Teru Fujii

Takashi Okawa

Yuko Inoue

Keiichi Saiki

Fumiaki Endo

Tutomu Tawa

Nobuyoshi Tada

Shigeya Tanaka

Maya Goto

Masahiro Wantanabe

Toshihilo Nakata

Shigemi Ishii

Tetsuyai Watanabe

The purpose of the present invention is to increase accuracy of a specific test using an electronic microscope and improve work efficiency. Provided is a system that identifies test recipe information corresponding to an object to be tested on the basis of attribute information about a testing sample, and analyzes and evaluates the object to be tested contained in the testing sample by checking image data and element analysis data that are acquired by a measuring device in accordance with a control program for the test recipe information, against reference image data and reference element analysis data that are used as evaluation references for the object to be tested.

Support system for specified inspection, support method for specified inspection, and non-transitory computer readable medium

A defect inspection apparatus including: a first illumination optical system which is configured to illuminate the inspection area on a sample surface from a normal line direction or a direction near thereof with respect to said sample surface; a second illumination optical system which is configured to illuminate said inspection area from a slant direction with respect to said sample surface; a detection optical system having a plurality of first detectors which are located, in front of, on the sides of, and behind said inspection area, respectively, with respect to the illumination direction of said second illumination optical system, and where the regular reflected light component, from said sample surface, by illumination light of said second illumination optical system, is not converged; and a signal processing system which is configured to inspect a defect, upon basis of signals obtained from said plurality of first detectors.

Surface inspection apparatus and method thereof

Foreign metal inspection equipment is provided with: a conveying device for conveying a sample to be subjected to inspection; electrodes positioned so as to face the surface of the sample; a measurement device for measuring the capacitance between the electrodes and the sample being conveyed by the conveying device; and a processing unit that inspects for foreign metal mixed in the sample on the basis of the change in capacitance measured by the measurement device.

Inspection equipment and inspection method

The present invention provides an inspection apparatus having a high throughput and high sensitivity with respect to a number of various manufacturing processes and defects of interest in inspection of a specimen such as a semiconductor wafer on which a pattern is formed. The apparatus illuminates with light the specimen having the pattern formed thereon, forms an image of the specimen on an image sensor through a reflective optics, and determines the existence/nonexistence of a defect. The reflective optics has a conjugate pair of Fourier transform optics. An aberration of the reflective optics is corrected off-axis. The reflective optics has a field of view in non-straight-line slit form on the specimen surface. Also, the optics is of a reflection type, includes a conjugate pair of Fourier transform optics and has a field of view in non-straight-line slit form. An optimum wavelength band is selected according to the specimen (FIG.).

Inspection apparatus

A defect inspection system can suppress an effect of light from a rough surface or a circuit pattern and increasing a gain of light from a defect to detect the defect with high sensitivity. When a lens with a large NA value is used, the diameter is, an angle between the sample surface and a traveling direction of the light from a defect being &#x3b1;. A system receives the light from the defect at a reduced elevation angle &#x3b1;with respect to the sample surface to reduce the scattered light, and to increase the light from the defect. The diameteris smaller than the diameter, resulting in a reduction in the ability to focus the scattered light. When a lens having a diameteris used, the lens interferes with the sample. To avoid the interference, a portion of the lens interfering with the sample is removed.

Defect inspection system

An aspect of the invention provides a defect inspection apparatus being able to accurately inspect a micro foreign matter or defect at a high speed for an inspection target substrate in which a repetitive pattern and a non-repetitive pattern are mixed. In a foreign matter anti-adhesive means, a transparent plateis placed on a placement tablethrough a frame. In the foreign matter anti-adhesive means, a shaftwhich is rotatably supported by two columnar supportsfixed onto a baseis coupled to a motorby a coupling. The shaftis inserted into a part of a framebetween the two columnar supportssuch that the frameand the transparent plateare turnable about the shaft. Therefore, the whole of the frameis opened and closed in a Z-direction about the shaft, and a waferon the placement tablecan be covered with the frameand the transparent plate

Apparatus and method for inspecting defect in object surface

A method and apparatus of inspecting a sample, in which the sample is inspected under a plurality of inspection conditions, and inspection data obtained by inspecting the sample under each of the plurality of inspection conditions and position information on the sample of the inspection date in correspondence with the respective inspection conditions, are stored. The inspection data for each of the plurality of inspection conditions is against each other by the use of the position information on the sample to determine a position to be inspected in detail, and an image of the sample at a position to be inspected in detail is obtained. The obtained image is classified, the inspection condition of the sample by the use of information of classification of the image is determined.

Method of inspecting a semiconductor device and an apparatus thereof

An inspecting apparatus and method including first and second illuminating units for illuminating a surface of a specimen to be inspected with different incident angles and first and second detecting optical units arranged at different elevation angle directions to the surface of the specimen for detecting images of the specimen illuminated by the first and second illuminating units.

Defects inspecting apparatus and defects inspecting method

Apparatus and method for inspecting defect on object surface

A pattern defect inspection apparatus capable of detecting minute defects on a sample with high sensitivity without generating speckle noise in signals is realized. Substantially the same region on a surface of a wafer is detected by using two detectors at mutually different timings. Output signals from the two detectors are summed and averaged to eliminate noise. Since a large number of rays of illumination light are not simultaneously irradiated to the same region on the wafer, a pattern defect inspection apparatus capable of suppressing noise resulting from interference of a large number of rays, eliminating noise owing to other causes and detecting with high sensitivity minute defects on the sample without the occurrence of speckle noise in the signal can be accomplished.

Pattern defect inspection apparatus and method

A defect inspection system can suppress an effect of light from a sample rough surface or a regular circuit pattern and increasing a gain of light from a defect such as a foreign material to detect the defect on the sample surface with high sensitivity. When a lens with a large NA value is used, the outer diameter of the lens is, and an angle between the sample surface and a traveling direction of the light from a defect is &#x3b1;. An oblique detection optics system receives the light from the defect at a reduced elevation angle &#x3b1;with respect to the sample surface to reduce light from the sample rough surface, an oxide film rough bottom surface, and a circuit pattern, and to increase the amount of the light from the defect and detected. The diameterof a lens is smaller than the diameter, resulting in a reduction in the ability to focus the scattered light. When a lens with an outer diameteris used to improve the focus ability, the lens interferes with the sample. To avoid the interference, a portion of the lens interfering with the sample is removed. The lens has an aperture larger than the diameterwhile the lens receives the light scattered at the elevation angle &#x3b1;, making it possible to improve the ability to detect defects and lens performance simultaneously.

A method and apparatus of detecting a defect by inspecting a specimen in which a surface of a specimen on which plural patterns are formed is illuminated with an elongated shape light flux from one of plural directions which are different in elevation angle by switching an optical path of the light flux emitted from an illuminating light source in accordance with a kind of defect to be detected. Plural optical images of the specimen illuminated by the elongated shape light flux are captured with plural image sensors installed in different elevation angle directions by changing an enlarging magnification in accordance with a density of the pattern formed on the sample in an area irradiated with the illuminating elongated shape light flux. A defect on the specimen is detected by processing the images captured by the plural image sensors.

Method of apparatus for detecting particles on a specimen

Growing community of inventors

Mitsukaido, Japan

Minori Noguchi