Hitachi High-tech Corporation

Nobuhiro Obara

Toshifumi Honda

Shunichi Matsumoto

Masami Makuuchi

Akira Hamamatsu

Takanori Kondo

Masaya Yamamoto

Takahiro Urano

Provided is a defect inspection apparatus including a plurality of detection optical systems for collecting illumination scattered light from the surface of a sample, a plurality of sensors for converting the illumination scattered light collected by the corresponding detection optical systems into electrical signals and outputting detection signals, and a signal processing device for processing the detection signals input from the plurality of sensors, wherein the signal processing device generates a first signal group including an integrated signal obtained by adding a plurality of detection signals in a predetermined combination based on a group of detection signals input from the plurality of sensors, generates a second signal group by performing the filtering processing on each signal that configures the first signal group, generates a third signal group including separated signals separated according to a predetermined rule from the signal corresponding to the integrated signal based on the second signal group, and detects or classifies defects based on the third signal group to store defect inspection data in a memory.

Defect inspection apparatus and defect inspection method

A defect inspection apparatus including illumination optical system configured to irradiate a sample with an illumination spot; a detector arrangement configured to detect, from a plurality of directions, reflected light from the sample; a scanning controller configured to control a scan of the sample with the illumination spot by overlapping detection regions such that the detection regions partially overlap; and a signal processor configured to process a signal obtained by detecting the reflected light from the sample by the detection unit to detect a defect. The signal processor is configured to synthesize an integrated signal by processing the signal detected a plurality of times by overlapping the reflected light of the sample for each detection region by the detection unit; and to detect the defect on a surface of the sample based on the synthesized integrated signal.

The present disclosure proposes a method for classifying defects and the like by using a learning device that has been suitably trained, a system, and a computer-readable medium. As one aspect thereof, the present disclosure proposes (see FIG.) a defect inspection method, etc., in which one or more computers are used to inspect a defect on a sample on the basis of output information from detectors that detect scattered light produced via the irradiation of the sample with light, wherein defect information is outputted by: receiving output from a plurality of detectors disposed at a plurality of angles of elevation with reference to the sample surface, and at a plurality of sample surface-direction orientations with reference to the irradiation points of the light on the sample; and inputting the output information of the plurality of detectors into a learning device that has been trained using the output information from the plurality of detectors and the defect information.

Method for defect inspection, system, and computer-readable medium

This defect inspection device for emitting illumination light onto a moving and rotating sample and inspecting for sample defects by scanning the sample in a spiral shape or concentric circle shapes comprises: an illumination and detection unit comprising an emission optical system and a detection optical system; a rotary stage for rotating the sample; a rectilinear stage for rectilinearly moving the rotary stage; and a controller for controlling the illumination and detection unit, rotary stage, and rectilinear stage. On the linear path of the rectilinear stage are a scanning start position where illumination light is emitted onto the sample and scanning is started and a sample delivery position where movement of the sample to the scanning start position starts. When the sample arrives at the scanning start position, the defect inspection device starts emitting the illumination light onto the sample without waiting for the rotation speed of the rotary stage to rise to a specified rotation speed for scanning and raises the rotation speed of the rotary stage to the specified rotation speed while scanning the sample.

Defect inspection device and defect inspection method

An inspection device capable of inspecting a foreign matter even during rotation acceleration/deceleration of an object under inspection. The inspection device includes a rotation-and-translation unit configured to rotate and translate the object under inspection; a light intensity modulation unit configured to modulate intensity of laser light to irradiate the object under inspection; a light intensity control unit configured to control the light intensity modulation unit; an object-under-inspection-operation detection unit configured to calculate information about a linear speed at a laser irradiation position on the object under inspection; a data processing unit configured to start foreign matter and defect inspection when a rotation speed of the object under inspection reaches a predetermined speed and a rotation-and-translation control unit configured to determine a time required for a next single rotation of a rotation stage, and apply, to a translation stage, a translation control value for moving the translation stage.

Inspection device and inspection method thereof

The invention includes a pulse oscillated light source, an illumination unit that guides light output from the light source to a sample, a scanning unit that controls a position at which the sample is scanned by the illumination unit, a light converging unit that converges light reflected from the sample, a first photoelectric conversion unit that outputs an electric signal corresponding to the light converged by the light converging unit, an AD conversion unit that converts the electric signal output from the first photoelectric conversion unit into a digital signal in synchronization with pulse oscillation of the light source, a linear restoration unit that processes a digital signal converted by the AD conversion unit in synchronization with a pulse oscillation output by the AD conversion unit and corrects nonlinearity of the first photoelectric conversion unit, a defect detection unit that detects a defect of the sample based on an output of the linear restoration unit, and a processing unit that obtains and outputs a position and a size of the defect detected by the defect detection unit.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Nobuhiro Obara