Hitachi, Ltd.

Renesas Technology Corp.

Other

Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Fujikin Inc.

Panasonic Liquid Crystal Display Co., Ltd.

Hitachi Displays, Ltd.

Renesas Electronics Corporation

Japan Display Inc.

Hitachi High-tech Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd.

Hitachi High-technologies Corporaation

Yoshikazu Tanabe

Nobuyoshi Natsuaki

Satoshi Sakai

Naoki Yamamoto

Minori Noguchi

Makoto Yoshida

Isamu Asano

Kenji Watanabe

Masayoshi Saito

Hirofumi Tsuchiyama

Yasuo Yatsugake

Yukio Kenbou

Ichiro Ishimaru

Ichiro Moriyama

Yasuhiko Nakatsuka

Nobukazu Ikeda

Akihiro Morimoto

Yukio Minami

Koji Kawada

Toshiaki Nagahama

Hiroshige Kogayu

Takehiko Yoshida

Tadahiro Ohmi

Keiji Hirao

Shinichiro Mitani

Ken Kagabu

Yuko Hanaoka

Hiroshi Nakamoto

Takahisa Nitta

Yasuhisa Shiraishi

Hiroshi Morokoshi

Tadashi Suzuki

Kouji Fujisawa

Yoshihiro Nishimine

A defect inspection apparatus including: a first illumination optical system which is configured to illuminate the inspection area on a sample surface from a normal line direction or a direction near thereof with respect to said sample surface; a second illumination optical system which is configured to illuminate said inspection area from a slant direction with respect to said sample surface; a detection optical system having a plurality of first detectors which are located, in front of, on the sides of, and behind said inspection area, respectively, with respect to the illumination direction of said second illumination optical system, and where the regular reflected light component, from said sample surface, by illumination light of said second illumination optical system, is not converged; and a signal processing system which is configured to inspect a defect, upon basis of signals obtained from said plurality of first detectors.

Surface inspection apparatus and method thereof

A liquid crystal display device includes: a light guide plate including a front surface, a back surface and an edge surface, the light guide plate being arranged such that the edge surface faces a light source, the light guide plate internally reflecting light incident from the edge surface and causing surface emission from the front surface; a liquid crystal display panel; and a reflective sheet arranged so as to face the back surface of the light guide plate. The back surface includes a first portion and a second portion. A surface of the second portion is located at a position recessed relatively from a surface of the first portion. The surface of the first portion is a rough surface. The surface of the second portion is a smooth surface. The reflective sheet is in contact with the first portion but avoids contact with the second portion.

Liquid crystal display device

In a method of forming a thin light guide plate which includes a compression step in an injection molding step, an optical pattern is liable to be adhered to a mold. Further, in removing the light guide plate from the mold using an ejector pin, a stress is concentrated on a local area of the light guide plate thus generating warping, deformation or irregularities in size of the light guide plate. To overcome such drawbacks, a liquid crystal display device is configured such that an optical pattern portion is compressed, and the light guide plate is removed by making use of a peripheral portion of a mold thus preventing the generation of stress in a local area of the light guide plate due to an ejector pin.

In a backlight which arranges light emitting diodes on a side surface of a light guide plate, even when the light guide plate is made thin by further reducing a thickness of the light guide plate and the light emitting diodes having a thickness larger than the thickness of the light guide plate are used, it is possible to manufacture the light guide plate with high accuracy in a short time. In a liquid crystal display device having a backlight which radiates light to a liquid crystal panel, LEDs are mounted on the light guide plate formed on the backlight as a light emitting element, a light radiation portion of the light guide plate is formed by molding by applying pressure and heat to a sheet-shaped resin, and a light incident portion of the light guide plate is formed by injection molding.

Liquid crystal display device comprising a light guide plate with a light radiation portion and a light incident portion joined by a joint surface and having an inclined surface and projecting portions

The invention provides a surface inspection apparatus and a method for inspecting the surface of a sample that are capable of inspecting discriminatingly between the scratch of various configuration and the adhered foreign object that occur on the surface of a work target when the work target (for example, an insulating film on a semiconductor substrate) is subjected to polishing process such as CMP or grinding process in semiconductor manufacturing process or magnetic head manufacturing process.

A method for fabricating a semiconductor integrated circuit device of the invention comprises feeding oxidation species containing a low concentration of water, which is generated from hydrogen and oxygen by the catalytic action, to the main surface of or in the vicinity of a semiconductor wafer, and forming a thin oxide film serving as a gate insulating film of an MOS transistor and having a thickness of 5 nm or below on the main surface of the semiconductor wafer at an oxide film-growing rate sufficient to ensure fidelity in formation of oxide film and uniformity in thickness of the oxide film.

Method for fabricating semiconductor integrated circuit device

Formation of an WNfilmconstituting a barrier layer of a gate electrodeA having a polymetal structure is effected in an atmosphere containing a high concentration nitrogen gas, whereby release of N (nitrogen) from the WNfilmis suppressed in the heat treatment step after the formation of the gate electrodeA.

Semiconductor integrated circuit device and process for manufacturing the same

An apparatus for detecting defects, including: a first illumination optical unit which illuminates from a normal direction or in the vicinity of the normal direction; a second illumination optical unit which illuminates from a first elevation angle; a first detection optical unit which detects light reflected by the illumination of the first illumination optical unit or the second illumination optical unit with plural detectors; a second detection optical unit which detects light reflected by the illumination of the first illumination optical unit or the second illumination optical unit with plural detectors; wherein the plural detectors of the first detection optical unit and the plural detectors of the second detection optical unit are photomultipliers, and the signal processor processes the signals outputted from the photomultipliers and are adjusted to balance in sensitivities.

A method for fabricating a semiconductor integrated circuit device of the invention comprises feeding oxidation species containing a low concentration of water, which is generated from hydrogen and oxygen by the catalytic action, to the main surface of or in the vicinity of a semiconductor wafer, and forming a thin oxide film serving as a gate insulating film of an MOS transistor and having a thickness of 5 nm or below on the main surface of the semiconductor wafer at an oxide film-growing rate sufficient to ensure fidelity in formation of an oxide film and uniformity in thickness of the oxide film.

A surface inspection apparatus and a method for inspecting the surface of a sample are capable of inspecting discriminatingly between scratches of various configuration and adhered foreign objects that occur on the surface of a work target when the work target (for example, an insulating film on a semiconductor substrate) is subjected to a polishing process such as CMP or a grinding process, in semiconductor manufacturing process or magnetic head manufacturing process. In the invention, the scratch and foreign object that occur on the polished or ground surface of the sample is epi-illuminated and slant-illuminated by use of approximately same light flux, the difference between the scattered light intensity from the shallow scratch and from the foreign object is applied to thereby discriminate between the shallow scratch and the foreign object, and the directionality of the scattered light is detected to discriminate between the linear scratch and the foreign object.

With a view to preventing the oxidation of a metal film at the time of light oxidation treatment after gate patterning and at the same time to making it possible to control the reproducibility of oxide film formation and homogeneity of oxide film thickness at gate side-wall end portions, in a gate processing step using a poly-metal, a gate electrode is formed by patterning a gate electrode material which has been deposited over a semiconductor waferA having a gate oxide film formed thereon and has a poly-metal structure and then, the principal surface of the semiconductor waferA heated to a predetermined temperature or vicinity thereof is supplied with a hydrogen gas which contains water at a low concentration, the water having been formed from hydrogen and oxygen by a catalytic action, to selectively oxidize the principal surface of the semiconductor waferA, whereby the profile of the side-wall end portions of the gate electrode is improved

Fabrication process of a semiconductor integrated circuit device

Semiconductor integrated circuit device and process for producing the same

Growing community of inventors

Iruma, Japan

Yoshikazu Tanabe