Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Hitachi Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd.

Takuaki Sekiguchi

Minori Noguchi

Hidetoshi Nishiyama

Tetsuya Watanabe

Kei Shimura

Masaaki Ito

Shuichi Chikamatsu

Kenji Aiko

Hiroyuki Yamashita

Masayuki Ochi

Shigeo Otsuki

Shigeru Abe

A system for monitoring foreign matter includes a manufacturing line having plural process processing apparatuses, a production management system which manages the processing of workpieces in the manufacturing line, plural optical heads which monitor foreign matter in relation to at least one of the workpieces, and which provide an output signal indicative thereof, and at least one image signal processing unit provided in a lesser number than a number of the plural optical heads for processing the output signal therefrom.

System for monitoring foreign particles, process processing apparatus and method of electronic commerce

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 foreign matter monitoring system comprises: a production management system which manages the processing of workpieces in a manufacture line; foreign matter monitors mounted as on-machine equipment in plural process processing apparatuses of the manufacture line, said foreign matter monitors each having an optical head containing a detecting optical system for irradiating a workpiece with light and a detecting optical system for receiving reflected and scattered light from the workpiece and converting the received light to a detection image signal and an A/D converter for converting the detection image signal, which is obtained through conversion by the detecting optical system, to a detection digital image signal; and a base system having a control unit for acquiring control information, a buffer memory for storing said detection digital image signal which is acquired from each foreign matter monitor, a database storing inspection recipes each associated with a foreign matter monitor and an image signal processing unit used for, based on a detection digital image signal associated with a foreign matter monitor and acquired from the buffer memory, judging whether foreign matter and other defects are present on a workpiece according to an inspection recipe which is selected for the corresponding foreign matter monitor based on control information from the control unit.

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Honjo, Japan

Takuaki Sekiguchi