Nikon Corporation

Takeo Oomori

Kazuhiko Fukazawa

Koichiro Komatsu

Mari Sugihara

Kinya Kato

Hideo Hirose

Kenzo Chiaki

Yuwa Ishii

Yasuharu Nakajima

Tatsumi Satou

Mari Yamamoto

A surface inspection apparatus and a surface inspection method aim to securely deal with finer repetition pitch without shortening the wavelength of illumination light. To this end, the apparatus includes a unit illuminating repetitive pattern(s) formed on the substrate surface to be inspected with linearly polarized light, a unit setting to an oblique angle an angle between the direction of an intersecting line of a vibration plane of the linearly polarized light on the substrate surface and the repetition direction of repetitive pattern(s), a unit extracting a polarized light component perpendicular to the vibration plane of the linearly polarized light, from light having been emitted from the repetitive pattern(s) in a specular direction, and a unit detecting a defect of the repetitive pattern(s) according to the light intensity of the polarized light component.

Surface inspection apparatus and surface inspection method

A defect inspection apparatus for inspecting a defect of a substrate as an object to be inspected comprises an illumination optical system for illuminating the substrate, a receiving optical system for receiving diffracted light from the substrate and a polarizing element provided in either one of the illumination optical system or the receiving optical system.

Defect inspection apparatus, defect inspection method and method of inspecting hole pattern

A surface inspection apparatus includes units illuminating repetitive patterns formed on a surface of a suspected substance and measuring a variation in an intensity of regular reflection light caused by a change in shapes of the repetitive patterns, units illuminating the repetitive patterns with linearly polarized light, setting an angle formed between a repetitive direction of the repetitive patterns and a direction of a plane of vibration of the linearly polarized light at a tilt angle, and measuring a variation in a polarized state of the regular reflection light caused by the change in the shapes of the repetitive patterns, and a unit detecting a defect of the repetitive patterns based on the variation in the intensity and the variation in the polarized state of the regular reflection light.

Surface state detecting apparatus

Surface inspection apparatus

A surface inspecting apparatus is provided with an illuminating means for illuminating a repeated pattern formed on the surface of an object to be inspected by linear polarization; a setting means for setting an angle formed by a direction on the surface of an incidence plane of the linear polarization and a repeating direction of the repeated pattern at a prescribed value other than 0; an extracting means for extracting polarization components vertical to an oscillation surface of the linear polarization, from light generated in a specular direction from the repeated pattern; a light receiving means for receiving the light extracted by the extracting means, and outputting light intensity of the specular reflection light; and a detecting means for detecting defects of the repeated pattern, based on the light intensity of the specular reflection light outputted from the light receiving means. The setting means sets the angle formed by the direction on the surface of the incidence plane of the linear polarization and the repeating direction of the repeated pattern so that a difference between the intensity of light from a normal portion on the surface and the light intensity of light from a defective portion on the surface is at maximum.

Surface inspecting apparatus

An apparatus and a method for defect inspection enables a reduction in the amount of noise light from an underlying layer and a good defect inspection reliably. The apparatus includes an illumination device that irradiates, with illumination light, a substrate to be inspected including a resist layer having cyclic patterns formed on the upper layer, and an optical image forming system that forms an image of the substrate to be inspected according to light that emerges from the substrate to be inspected by the irradiation with illumination light. The wavelength of the illumination light is set so that intensity of the light from the surface of the resist layer, among the light emerged from the substrate to be inspected, is greater than that of light that has passed through the surface of the cyclic pattern layer formed below the resist layer.

Defect inspection apparatus and defect inspection method

The present invention aims to provide a surface defect inspection apparatus and a surface defect inspection method for properly inspecting for a concave-shaped flaw (or a part thereof) substantially in parallel with a plane of incidence. The apparatus includes an illumination unitilluminating a front surface (surface under inspection) of an object to be inspectedwith illumination light for inspection, a changing unitwhich relatively rotating the object to be inspected and the illumination unit around an axis AXperpendicular to the surface under inspectionand changing illumination conditions of the illumination light, a light reception unitreceiving scattered light emitted from the surface under inspection when illuminated with illumination light in each illumination condition, to capture images thereof, and a combining unitcombining images captured by the light reception unit to generate a combined image.

Surface defect inspection apparatus and surface defect inspection method

A surface inspection apparatus includes an illumination means for illuminating a pattern formed through a predetermined pattern forming process containing a process of exposure of a resist layer formed on a substrate having a periodicity with a linearly polarized light, a setting means for setting a direction of the substrate such that a plane of vibration of the linear polarization and a direction of repetition of the pattern are obliquely to each other, an extraction means for extracting a polarization component having a plane of vibration perpendicular to that of the linear polarization out of specularly reflected light from the pattern, and an image forming means for forming an image of the surface of the substrate based on the extracted light. A pattern forming condition in the pattern forming process is specified based on the light intensity of the image of the surface of the substrate formed by the image forming means.

Surface inspection apparatus, surface inspection method and exposure system

A surface inspection apparatus includes: a light source unit that emits a divergent light flux of predetermined linearly polarized light to be used to illuminate a test substrate; a first optical member that allows the divergent light flux of the predetermined linearly polarized light to enter therein with a predetermined angle of incidence and then guides a light flux to the test substrate; a second optical member that allows a light flux from the test substrate to enter therein, emits a convergent light flux thereof with a predetermined angle of emergence and forms an image at a specific surface; an extraction unit that extracts linearly polarized light in the convergent light flux from the second optical member, which is perpendicular to the predetermined linearly polarized light; a light-receiving unit that receives an image of the test substrate formed via the second optical member and the extraction unit; and at least one polarization correcting member disposed within a light path extending between the light source unit and the light-receiving unit, which corrects a disruption of a polarization plane attributable to the first optical member and the second optical member.

Surface inspection apparatus, polarization illuminating device and light-receiving device

A surface inspection method for inspecting a pattern formed at a surface of a test piece, includes: a first step in which a plurality of inspection conditions that are different from each other are set; a second step in which light from the surface of the test piece is detected by irradiating illumination light onto the surface of the test piece under each of the plurality of inspection conditions; a third step in which a plurality of sets of detection information corresponding to the plurality of inspection conditions are generated based upon the detected light; a fourth step in which a logical OR of the plurality of sets of detection information is obtained; and a fifth step in which a decision is made as to whether or not the pattern at the surface of the test piece is acceptable based upon results of the logical OR.

Growing community of inventors

Sagamihara, Japan

Takeo Oomori