Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Hitachi, Ltd.

Other

Shuichi Chikamatsu

Minori Noguchi

Kenji Aiko

Masayuki Ochi

Hidetoshi Nishiyama

Takahiro Jingu

Takanori Ninomiya

Shunichi Matsumoto

Yoshimasa Ohshima

Yukio Kembo

Yoshio Morishige

Keiji Sakai

Hisato Nakamura

Ryouji Matsunaga

Tetsuya Watanabe

Hisafumi Iwata

Koichi Taniguchi

Kei Shimura

Masaaki Ito

Hiroyuki Yamashita

Seiji Otani

Takuaki Sekiguchi

Shigehisa Nozawa

Takahiko Suzuki

Shigeo Otsuki

Tadashi Suga

Shigeru Abe

Tetsuyai Watanabe

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

A defect inspection apparatus emits light to a test object, detects reflected of scattered light from the test object and detects a defect in the test object The apparatus comprises a temperature-controlled part accommodating section that accommodates parts having a need for controlling a temperature, which is out of a plurality of parts in the defect inspection apparatus. A first temperature measuring instrument measures a temperature in the temperature-controlled part accommodating section; and a temperature control unit controls a temperature of the interior of the temperature-controlled part accommodating section at a prescribed temperature according to the temperature measured by the first temperature measuring instrument. Accordingly, a defect inspection apparatus can efficiently perform temperature control without involving an enlarged size can be achieved.

Inspection apparatus and inspection 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.

An inspection device for inspecting defects of an inspection object including a light source for irradiating a luminous flux to the inspection object; an optical system for guiding reflected light from the inspection object; a photoelectric image sensor having a plurality of photoelectric cells arranged, for converting the light guided to detection signals; a detection signal transfer unit having channels each constituted by a signal correction unit, a converter and an image formation unit, and corresponding to each of a plurality of regions formed by dividing the photoelectric image sensor, respectively; and an image synthesis unit for forming an image of the surface of the object by synthesizing partial images outputted; the inspection device inspecting defects of the object by processing the synthesized image; whereby it becomes possible to correct a detection signal from said photoelectric cell close to a predetermined reference target value.

Inspection device and inspection method

Provided are a defect inspection apparatus having a large range for receiving light scattering from fine defects while securing a sufficiently large signal strength; and a defect inspection method for the same. The defect inspection apparatus includes: a stage part capable of traveling relative to optical systems with a substrate to be inspected mounted on the stage part; an illumination optical system for illuminating an inspection area on the substrate; a detection optical system for detecting light coming from the inspection area on the substrate; an image sensor for converting, to a signal, an image which is formed on the image sensor by the detection optical system; a signal processor for detecting defects by processing the signal from the image sensor; and a plane reflecting mirror, arranged between the detection optical system and the substrate, for transmitting the light, which comes from the substrate, to the detection optical system.

Defect inspection method and defect inspection apparatus

A defect inspecting apparatus of the invention solves a problem that in a defect inspecting apparatus, because of improving detection sensitivity of a microscopic defect by reducing a detection pixel size, a focal depth becomes shallow, a height of imaging is varied due to environmental change and the detection sensitivity of a defect becomes unstable. This apparatus comprises an XY stage, which carries a substrate to be inspected and scans in a predetermined direction, and a mechanism having a system of irradiating a defect on the inspected substrate at a slant and detecting the defect by a detection optical system disposed on the upper side, which corrects a height of imaging in real time for change in temperature and barometric pressure in order to keep the imaging in a best condition.

Defect inspecting method and apparatus

A defect inspection apparatus enable to efficiently perform a temperature control without involving an enlarged size can be achieved. The parts constituting the defect inspection apparatus are classified into parts need temperature control and parts not to need temperature control; all the parts need temperature control are accommodated together into a temperature-controlled part accommodating section, and the parts not to need temperature control are arranged in a heat radiating unit. The temperature in the temperature-controlled part accommodating sectionis measured by a temperature measuring instrumentand a control CPUin a temperature control unitcarries out control according to the measured temperature so that the interior of the temperature-controlled part accommodating sectionis kept at a fixed temperature. Therefore, it becomes easy to keep the fixed temperature, when compared with a case in which individual parts are temperature-controlled separately by being heated or cooled, yielding an energy saving effect.

A defect inspection apparatus includes: stages each mounting an inspecting object on which a circuit pattern having a group of parallel lines is formed, and each running perpendicular or parallel to the group of lines; an illumination optical system which illuminating a surface of the inspecting object with a slit beam being slit light so that a longitudinal direction of the slit beam is substantially perpendicular to the running directions of the stages, and which has a first inclined angle formed by the direction of the group of lines and a projection line, of an optical axis of the slit beam, to the inspecting object; a spatial filter that shields or transmits reflected and scattered light of the inspecting object according to a difference in distribution of orientation; and a detection optical system that detects the reflected and scattered light transmitted through the spatial filter by image sensors. Moreover, the illumination optical system illuminates the inspecting object with another slit beam from a direction opposite to an incident direction of the slit beam on a plane.

Defect inspection apparatus and defect inspection method

A method for detecting defects on an object includes an illumination optical unit which obliquely projects a laser focused onto a line on a surface of the object and white-color, a table unit which mounts the specimen and which is movable, a detection optical unit which detects with an image sensor an image of light formed by light reflected from the object and passed through a filter which blocks diffraction light resulting from patterns formed on the object, a signal processor which processes a signal outputted from the image sensor of the detection optical unit to extract defects of the object, and a display unit which displays information of defects extracted by the signal processor. The filter is adjustable.

Method of detecting defects on an object

Defect inspecting apparatus

A defect inspection system can suppress an effect of light from a sample rough surface or a regular circuit pattern and increase 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, an oblique detection optics system receives the light from the defect at a reduced elevation angle 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 increases the amount of the light from the defect and detected. The diameter of a lens is smaller than the diameter of a second lens, resulting in a reduction in the ability to focus the scattered light.

An apparatus for detecting defects on a specimen including an illumination optical unit which obliquely projects a laser onto a region which is longer in one direction than in a direction transverse to said one direction on a surface of a specimen, a table unit which mounts said specimen and which is movable, a detection optical unit which detects with an image sensor an image of light formed by light reflected from said specimen in both directions of the one direction and the direction transverse and which reflected light in both directions is formed on said image sensor while said table is moving, a signal processor which processes a signal outputted from said image sensor of said detection optical unit to extract defects of said specimen. A display unit which displays information of defects extracted by said signal processor.

Growing community of inventors

Kounosu, Japan

Shuichi Chikamatsu