Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd.

Yoshimasa Oshima

Toshiyuki Nakao

Yuta Urano

Akira Hamamatsu

Shunji Maeda

Nobuyuki Akiyama

Hidetoshi Nishiyama

Shigeru Matsui

Hiroyuki Nakano

Sachio Uto

Hisae Shibuya

Mitsuyoshi Koizumi

Shigenobu Maruyama

Toshihiko Nakata

Minoru Yoshida

Asahiro Kuni

Yasuhiko Hara

Satoru Fushimi

Nobuhiko Aoki

Toshiaki Yachi

Mituyoshi Koizumi

Yoshihiko Yamuchi

An inspection method and apparatus for detecting defects or haze of a sample, includes illuminating light to the sample from an oblique direction relative to a surface of the sample with an illuminator, detecting first scattered light at a forward position relative to an illuminating direction from the sample with a first detector, detecting second scattered light at a sideward or backward position relative to the illuminating direction from the sample with a second detection, and processing a first signal of the first scattered light and a second signal of the second scattered light with different weighting for the first signal and for the second signal with a processor.

Inspection apparatus

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

An inspection method and apparatus for detecting defects or haze of a sample, includes illuminating light to the sample from an oblique direction relative to a surface of the sample with an illuminator, detecting first scattered light at a forward position relative to an illuminating direction from the sample with a first detector, detecting sec and scattered light at a sideward or backward position relative to the illuminating direction from the sample with a second detection, and processing a first signal of the first scattered light and a second signal of the second scattered light with different weighting for the first signal and for the second signal with a processor.

An inspecting method and apparatus for inspecting a substrate surface includes illuminating a light to the substrate surface having a film, detection of a scattered light or reflected light from a plurality of positions of the substrate surface to obtain a plurality of electrical signals, comparison of the plurality of electrical signals and a database which indicates a relationship between the electrical signals and surface roughness, and calculation of a surface roughness value based on the result of comparison.

Inspecting method and inspecting apparatus for substrate surface

A method and apparatus of inspecting a defect of a surface of a sample in which a laser beam is irradiated on a sample surface so that at least a part of an illumination field of the laser beam illuminates a first area of the sample surface, a plurality of scattered light rays from the first area caused by the irradiation is detected with a plurality of detectors, detection errors of inclination of an illumination apparatus and a sensor for the plurality of scattered light rays detected by the plurality of detectors are corrected, at least one of adding and averaging the corrected plurality of scattered light rays, and a defect on the sample surface is determined based on the plurality of scattered light rays in accordance with the correction of errors of inclination of the illumination apparatus and the sensor.

Defect inspection method

A defect inspection apparatus for inspecting a surface of a sample includes a stage for holding the sample, an illumination optical system that irradiates a laser beam to form a linear illuminated area on the surface of the sample, a detection optical system, and a signal processing system. The detection optical system includes a detector device having a plurality of pixels for detecting light scattered from the linear illuminated area of the surface of the sample, and that outputs in parallel a plurality of detection signals having mutually different sensitivities acquired from the plurality of pixels of the detector device. The signal processing system selects an unsaturated detection signal from the plurality of detection signals and detects a defect in accordance with the selected detection signal.

Defect inspection apparatus

A defect inspection apparatus is capable of inspecting an extremely small defect present on the top and edge surfaces of a sample such as a semiconductor substrate or a thin film substrate with high sensitivity and at high speed. The defect inspection apparatus has an illumination optical system, a plurality of detection optical units and a signal processor. One or more of the detection optical units receives either light diffracted from an edge portion of the sample or light diffracted from an edge grip holding the sample. The one or more of the detection optical units shields the diffracted light received by the detection optical unit based on a signal obtained by monitoring an intensity of the diffracted light received by the detection optical unit in order to inspect a sample portion located near the edge portion and a sample portion located near the edge grip.

Method and its apparatus for inspecting defects

An inspecting method and apparatus for inspecting a substrate surface includes application of a light to the substrate surface, detection of scattered light or reflected light from the substrate surface due to the applied light at a plurality of positions to obtain a plurality of electrical signals, extraction of a signal in a mutually different frequency band from each of the plurality of electrical signals, and calculation of a value regarding a state of film of the substrate through an arithmetical operation process of a plurality of extracted signals in the frequency bands.

An inspection apparatus and method for detecting defects and haze on a surface of a sample includes illumination optics which emit light to illuminate an inspection region on the surface of the sample from an oblique direction relative to the inspection region, first detection optics which detect first scattered light from the inspection region and having a beam analyzer through an optical path, second detection optics which detect second scattered light from the inspection region, the second scattered light being scattered from a direction different than a direction of the first scattered light, and a signal-processing unit which treats different processings for a first signal of the detected first scattered light and for a second signal of the detected second scattered light and detecting defects and haze on the surface of the sample on the basis of at least one of the first signal and the second signal.

A defect inspection apparatus and method includes utilizing an irradiation optical system that focuses a beam flux emitted from a laser light source and formed into a slit-shaped beam so as to irradiate the beam onto the surface of the substrate to be inspected, utilizing a detection optical system that detects light from the substrate that has been irradiated with the slit-shaped beam, and utilizing a signal processor that processes a signal output from the detection optical system. The irradiation optical system includes a cylindrical lens for focusing the beam that has been emitted from the laser light source onto the substrate to be inspected, as the slit-shaped beam, wherein the cylindrical lens is disposed so as to obtain a distance between an incidence surface or emitting surface thereof and the slit-shaped beam upon the substrate to be inspected to be equal to a focal distance of the cylindrical lens.

Apparatus and method for inspecting defects

To inspect a substrate such as a semiconductor substrate for surface roughness at high precision. The surface roughness of the substrate is measured in each frequency band of the surface roughness by applying a light to the substrate surface and detecting a scattered light or reflected light at a plurality of azimuth or elevation angles.

Scattered light that originates from the surface roughness of silicon or other metallic films is distributed more strongly at positions closer to the starting position of the scattering. Of all scattered-light detection signals obtained during multi-directional detection, therefore, only a detection signal of forward scattered light can be used to detect micro-defects, and only a detection signal of backward scattered light can be used to detect the surface roughness very accurately.

A method and apparatus for inspecting a defect of a surface of a sample in which a laser beam is irradiated on a sample surface so that at least a part of an illumination field of the laser beam illuminates a first area of the sample surface, a plurality of scattered light rays from the first area caused by the irradiation in the irradiating is detected, errors of inclination of an illumination apparatus and a sensor for the plurality of scattered light rays detected are corrected, the plurality of scattered light rays corrected is at least one of added and averaged, a defect on the sample surface based on the plurality of scattered light rays in accordance with the correcting of errors of inclination of the illumination apparatus and the sensor is determined.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Yoshimasa Oshima