Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Hitachi, Ltd.

Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Hitachi High-tech Corporation

Jimbo Electric Co., Ltd.

Shigeru Matsui

Hideki Kohno

Muneo Maeshima

Kazuo Takeda

Kensuke Sekihara

Etsuji Yamamoto

Kazuhiro Sugiyama

Kenji Oka

Noboru Yashima

Takahiro Togashi

Yoshisada Ebata

Naoki Kizu

Yukari Hiratsuka

Takanori Ninomiya

Toshiyuki Nakao

Yoshimasa Oshima

Toshiei Kurosaki

Takanori Aono

Seiji Isogai

Hidemi Shiono

Yoshitaka Kodama

Hitoshi Komuro

Takashi Onodera

Koji Tomita

Masaaki Ito

Masayuki Hachiya

Katsuya Suzuki

Hiroshi Goto

Minori Noguchi

Tetsuya Watanabe

Takayuki Ono

Tadashi Suzuki

Masami Iizuka

Mizuki Oku

Kenta Yaegashi

Isao Nemoto

Masaru Inoue

Yugo Onoda

Norio Hasegawa

Masahito Ito

Ryoji Inaba

Motohiro Yamazaki

Makoto Ohkura

Satoshi Takahashi

Masao Kuroda

Yoshio Fujii

Hideaki Nakane

Masao Yabusaki

Hirofumi Shimizu

Shiori Fujiyoshi

Isao Uchida

Yasushi Matsuda

Seiichi Isomae

Yukiko Ogura

Akira Owada

Jiro Yamamoto

Toshihiko Onozuka

Kazuyuki Kakuta

Kyoko Minowa

Toshihiko Sakaide

Masuo Kuroda

The present invention provides a concave diffraction grating and an optical device using the concave diffraction grating, the concave diffraction grating being capable of preventing deformation of a reflection film due to the influence of temperature, and preventing deterioration in optical characteristic due to temperature. This concave diffraction grating is provided with: a reflection film () having a plurality of grating grooves (); a holding film () comprising metal and having one surface on which the reflection film () is provided; a concave substrate () having a concave surface (); and an affixing layer () provided between the concave surface () and the other surface of the holding film (), and affixing the holding film () and the reflection film () to the concave substrate ().

Concave diffraction grating and optical device

The present invention provides a concave diffraction grating capable of improved diffraction efficiency by suppressing spherical aberration. The concave diffraction grating is a concave diffraction gratingfor dispersing and focusing light and comprises sawtooth grating grooveson a concave substrate, with the sawtooth grating groovesbeing unequally spaced. The concave diffraction gratingfor dispersing and focusing light is formed by preparing a planar diffraction grating with a sawtooth shape which is formed on a planar substrate by photo-lithography and etching or machining and which forms unequally spaced grating grooves, deforming and mounting the planar diffraction grating along a fixed convex substrate to obtain a mold of a concave diffraction grating, and transferring the mold of the concave diffraction grating to the surface of a metal or a resin.

Concave diffraction grating, method for producing the same, and optical device

A technique is provided which enables preparation of a curved grating having a desired curvature, by plastically deforming, along a curved substrate, a flat grating prepared by a semiconductor process on a silicon substrate, and which thus prepares a diffraction grating with high accuracy. A silicon flat grating prepared by a semiconductor process is transferred to an amorphous material, and the amorphous material substrate is curved and mounted on a curved fixed substrate, thus providing a curved grating having a crystalline material in which the generation of a dislocation line is restrained.

Curved grating, method for manufacturing the same, and optical device

A curved surface diffraction grating fabrication method for fabricating a curved surface diffraction grating having a desired curvature with high accuracy, includes: a step of forming a diffraction grating pattern on a flat-shaped silicon substrate; a step of curving the silicon substrate on which the diffraction grating pattern is formed, by pressing, in a heated state, a fixing substrate having a shape with a desired curved surface onto the silicon substrate and of fixing the silicon substrate on which the diffraction grating pattern is formed to the fixing substrate having the shape with the curved surface, to fabricate a curved surface diffraction grating cast; and a step of bringing a member having flexibility into contact with the curved surface diffraction grating cast, to transfer the diffraction grating pattern to the member.

Curved face diffraction grating fabrication method, curved face diffraction grating cast, and curved face diffraction grating employing same

To provide a technique that can measure a surface profile of any test object in a nondestructive manner and noncontact manner, highly accurately, and in a wide tilt angle dynamic range. In white light interference method using a dual beam interferometer, the technique is configured to be capable of changing a surface orientation of a standard plane with respect to an incident optical axis on the standard plane, acquires, while relatively changing the surface orientation of the standard plane with respect to a local surface orientation in any position on a test surface, a plurality of interferograms generated by interference of reflected light from the test surface and reflected light from the standard plane, and calculates the local surface orientation on the test surface from the interferograms to thereby measure a surface profile of the test surface.

Surface profile measurement method and device used therein

A technique of forming an asymmetric pattern by using a phase shift mask, and further, techniques of manufacturing a diffraction grating and a semiconductor device, capable of improving accuracy of a product and capable of shortening manufacturing time. In a method of manufacturing a diffraction grating by using a phase shift mask (in which a light shield part and a light transmission part are periodically arranged), light emitted from an illumination light source is transmitted through the phase shift mask, and a photoresist on a surface of a Si wafer is exposed by providing interference between zero diffraction order light and positive first diffraction order light which are generated by the transmission through this phase shift mask onto the surface of the Si wafer, and a diffraction grating which has a blazed cross-sectional shape is formed on the Si wafer.

Phase shift mask, method of forming asymmetric pattern, method of manufacturing diffraction grating, and method of manufacturing semiconductor device

A surface inspecting apparatus can inspect a smaller defect by using a PSL of a smaller particle size. However, the particle size of the PSL is restricted. In the conventional surface inspecting apparatus, therefore, no consideration has been taken as to how to inspect the defect of such a small particle size as is not set in the PSL which will be needed in the near future in an inspection of a semiconductor manufacturing step. The invention has a light source device for generating light which simulated at least one of a wavelength, a light intensity, a time-dependent change of the light intensity, and a polarization of light which was scattered, diffracted, or reflected by an inspection object, and the light is inputted to a photodetector of the surface inspecting apparatus. The smaller defect can be inspected.

Light source device, surface inspecting apparatus using the device, and method for calibrating surface inspecting apparatus using the device

A surface inspecting apparatus rotates a semiconductor wafer(inspection object) as a main scan while translating the semiconductor waferas an auxiliary scan, illuminates the surface of the semiconductor waferwith illuminating light, thereby forms an illumination spotas the illumination area of the illuminating light, detects scattered or diffracted or reflected light from the illumination spot, and detects a foreign object existing on the surface of the semiconductor waferor in a part of the semiconductor waferin the vicinity of the surface based on the result of the detection. In the surface inspecting apparatus, the translation speed of the auxiliary scan is controlled according to the distance from the rotation center of the semiconductor waferin the main scan to the illumination spot. With this control, the inspection time can be shortened while the deterioration in the detection sensitivity and the increase in the thermal damage during the surface inspection are suppressed.

Surface inspecting apparatus and surface inspecting method

A surface defect inspection apparatus and method for irradiating a beam multiple times to a same region on a surface of an inspection sample, detecting each scattered light from the same region by detection optical systems individually to produce plural signals, and wherein irradiating the beam includes performing a line illumination of the beam on a line illumination region of the sample surface. The line illumination region is moved in a longitudinal direction at a pitch shorter than a length of the line illumination region in the longitudinal direction.

Surface defect inspection method and apparatus

In the conventional contaminant particle/defect inspection method, if the illuminance of the illumination beam is held at not more than a predetermined upper limit value not to give thermal damage to the sample, the detection sensitivity and the inspection speed being in the tradeoff relation with each other, it is very difficult to improve one of the detection sensitivity and the inspection speed without sacrificing the other or improve both at the same time. The invention provides an improved optical inspection method and an improved optical inspection apparatus, in which a pulse laser is used as a light source, and a laser beam flux is split into a plurality of laser beam fluxes which are given different time delay to form a plurality of illumination spots. The scattered light signal from each illumination spot is isolated and detected by using a light emission start timing signal for each illumination spot.

Optical inspection method and optical inspection apparatus

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 method and equipment which includes an illustrated-spot illumination-distribution data table for storing an illumination distribution within an illustrated spot and which calculates a coordinate position for a particle or a defect and the diameter of the particle on the basis of detection light intensity data about the particle or defect and the illustrated-spot illumination-distribution data table. Thus, even when the illumination distribution within the illustrated spot based on an actual illumination optical system is not a Gaussian distribution, the calculation of the particle diameter of the detected particle or defect and the calculation of a coordinate position on the surface of an object to be inspected can be attained with an increased accuracy.

Method for detecting particles and defects and inspection equipment thereof

An appearance inspection apparatus analyzes a difference in detection characteristics of detection signals obtained by detectors to flexibly meet various inspection purposes without changing a circuit or software. The apparatus includes a signal synthesizing section that synthesizes detection signals from the detectors in accordance with a set condition. An input operating section sets a synthesizing condition of the detection signal by the signal synthesizing section, and an information display section displays a synthesizing map structured based on a synthesized signal which is synthesized by the signal synthesizing section in accordance with a condition set by the input operating section.

Appearance inspection apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Hitachinaka, Japan

Shigeru Matsui