Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Yuji Miyoshi

Tomohiro Funakoshi

Kazuhisa Hasumi

The inspection conditions of a known inspection apparatus necessary for inspection are such that wafers are individually prepared for respective layer types and layer thicknesses, and standard particles having different sizes are applied to all of the wafers. Moreover, the wafers to which standard particles have been applied and which have been prepared for the respective layer types and layer thicknesses are inspected by the inspection apparatus to determine the optimal inspection conditions for the respective layer types and layer thicknesses. Therefore, there are problems that it requires long time and involves high cost to determine the inspection conditions. In the invention, the relation between the layer thickness and the scattering intensity in the inspection apparatus is calculated. The scattering intensity is divided into a plurality of intensity regions, and the inspection conditions optimized for the respective divided regions are determined. The inspection conditions are shared in each divided intensity region, whereby the time and cost necessary to determine the inspection conditions can be dramatically reduced.

Inspection method and inspection apparatus

A surface inspection toolmeasures scattering light intensity of scattering light generated by irradiated irradiation light in association with a measurement coordinate on a waferwith patterns and inspects the surface roughness of the wafer. The surface inspection tool includes a controllerwhich extracts measurement coordinate of the measured scattering light intensity that is equal to or more than a lower limit threshold L, sets an inspection rangeof the surface roughness inspection in a partial layoutof a part of the whole layoutof the pattern corresponding to the periphery of the extracted measurement coordinate, and obtains the surface roughness in the inspection range

Surface inspection tool and surface inspection method

An object of the present invention is to provide a surface inspection tool in which a flat inspection range capable of measuring surface roughness of a wafer with patterns with high accuracy and in a nondestructive manner can be searched without visual search. In order to solve the object, in a surface inspection toolwhich measures scattering light intensity of scattering light generated by irradiated irradiation light in association with a measurement coordinate on a waferwith patterns and inspects the surface roughness of the wafer, the surface inspection tool includes a controllerwhich extracts measurement coordinate of the measured scattering light intensity that is equal to or more than a lower limit threshold L, sets an inspection rangeof the surface roughness inspection in a partial layoutof a part of the whole layoutof the pattern corresponding to the periphery of the extracted measurement coordinate, and obtains the surface roughness in the inspection range

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Hitachinaka, Japan

Yuji Miyoshi