Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Nec Corporation

Advanced Mask Inspection Technology Inc.

Nobuyuki Harabe

Junji Oaki

A technique for discriminating a specific pattern, such as an assist pattern, from an integrate circuit pattern of a workpiece by using transmission and reflection images of the workpiece pattern is disclosed. A pattern discrimination device includes an optical image acquisition unit for acquiring a transmissive image of a workpiece having a pattern and a reflective image of the workpiece pattern simultaneously, and a specific pattern detection unit which detects for extraction a specific pattern from among pattern shapes of the transmissive and reflective images in conformity with a distinguishing condition of the specific pattern. A workpiece pattern inspection apparatus using the device is also disclosed.

Ultrafine pattern discrimination using transmitted/reflected workpiece images for use in lithography inspection system

A high-accuracy image correction device adaptable for use in pattern inspection apparatus is disclosed. The device includes a correction region designation unit which designates a correction region including a pattern and its nearby portion within each of an inspection reference pattern image and a pattern image under test. The device also includes an equation generator which generates by linear predictive modeling a set of simultaneous equations for a reference pattern image within the correction region and an under-test pattern image within the correction region, a parameter generator for solving the equations to obtain more than one model parameter, and a corrected pattern image generator for using the model parameter to apply the linear predictive modeling to the reference pattern image to thereby generate a corrected pattern image. A pattern inspection method using the image correction technique is also disclosed.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Nobuyuki Harabe