Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Hitachi, Ltd.

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Hitachi High-tech Corporation

Shibaura Mechatronics Corporation

Chlorine Engineers Corp., Ltd.

The University of Tokyo

Yukihiro Shibata

Shunji Maeda

Toshifumi Honda

Minoru Yoshida

Yuta Urano

Atsushi Yoshida

Kenji Oka

Atsushi Taniguchi

Sachio Uto

Toshihiko Nakata

Kazuo Yamaguchi

Chie Shishido

Yasuhiro Yoshitake

Taketo Ueno

Yuji Takagi

Hidetoshi Nishiyama

Shunichi Matsumoto

Toshiyuki Nakao

Naoya Hayamizu

Hiroaki Shishido

Hideki Fukushima

Minori Noguchi

Hiroyuki Nakano

Masaaki Kato

Yasuhiko Nakayama

Kenji Watanabe

Akira Hamamatsu

Takanori Ninomiya

Yoshitada Oshida

Yukio Kembo

Kei Shimura

Takafumi Okabe

Nobuo Kobayashi

Hiroshi Makihira

Masahiro Watanabe

Hitoshi Kubota

Akiko Saito

Tsuneo Terasawa

Yoshimasa Ohshima

Tetsuya Matsui

Junguo Xu

Hiroshi Toshiyoshi

Takuya Takahashi

Hisafumi Iwata

Yuki Shimizu

Akio Yazaki

Shigenobu Maruyama

Yoichi Takahara

Makoto Murayama

Jun Momma

Hiroyuki Fukui

Hideo Oota

Hiroshi Makihara

Tutomu Tawa

Shigemi Ishii

Shun'ichi Matsumoto

Kentaro Motohara

As a technique to improve processing efficiency of defect inspection by quickly adjusting a position of a detection system, provided is a defect inspection apparatus including: a stage that moves with a sample and a pattern substrate placed thereon; an illumination optical system that irradiates an object on the stage from a direction inclined from the normal direction of the pattern substrate; a first detection optical system that detects scattered light in the normal direction; a second detection optical system that detects scattered light in a direction different from the scattered light detected by the first detection optical system; a signal processing unit that processes both scattered light signals; and a control unit. The control unit implements first adjustment processing of adjusting a focal position of the first or the second detection optical system and a three-dimensional position of each detector with respect to an illumination region by using a scattered light signal and second adjustment processing of adjusting a focal point by changing a position in an optical axis direction of a detector of the first or the second detection optical system and a position in a height direction of the stage, and implements the second adjustment processing at a higher frequency than the first adjustment processing.

Defect inspection apparatus and pattern chip

In a defect inspection device that irradiates a surface of a sample or a surface of a pattern chip with an illumination light shaped to extend in a first direction, and detects a scattered light generated from the surface of the sample or the surface of the pattern chip by the illumination light to detect a defect on the surface of the sample, the pattern chip has a dot pattern area in which multiple dots are arrayed in multiple rows and multiple columns, a minimum interval between the dots corresponding to the lines aligned in the first direction among the multiple dots arrayed in the dot pattern area in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction is smaller than a width of the illumination light, and a minimum interval between the multiple dots arrayed in the dot pattern area is larger than a resolution of the detection optical system.

Defect inspection device, pattern chip, and defect inspection method

To increase the illumination efficiency by facilitating the change of the incident angle of illumination light with a narrow illumination width according to an inspection object and enabling an illumination region to be effectively irradiated with light, provided is a defect inspection method for obliquely irradiating a sample mounted on a table that is moving continuously in one direction with illumination light, collecting scattered light from the sample obliquely irradiated with the illumination light, detecting an image of the surface of the sample formed by the scattered light, processing a signal obtained by detecting the image formed by the scattered light, and extracting a defect candidate, wherein the oblique irradiation of the light is implemented by linearly collecting light emitted from a light source, and obliquely projecting the collected light onto the surface of the sample, thereby illuminating a linear region on the surface of the sample.

Defect inspection method and its device

A defect inspection device inspecting a sample includes a movable table on which the sample as an inspection object and a pattern chip are mounted, an illumination light irradiation unit which irradiates a surface of the sample or a surface of the pattern chip with linearly-formed illumination light, a detection optical system section where a plurality of detection optical systems are disposed at a plurality of positions above the table and which detect images of scattered light generated from the sample, and a signal processing unit which processes detected signals to detect a defect of the sample surface, and a plurality of repeating patterns for generating the scattered light according to positions of the objective lenses of the plurality of detection optical systems of the detection optical system section when the linearly-formed illumination light is irradiated by the illumination light irradiation unit are periodically formed in the pattern chip.

Defect inspection method and device using same

A defect-inspection device includes an irradiation unit having an objective-pupil-optical unit that allows illumination light linearly condensed by a first light-condensing unit to pass through, and an objective lens that allows the illumination light having passed through the objective-pupil-optical unit to pass through; an irradiation-position-control unit that controls a passing position of the illumination light in the objective-pupil-optical unit disposed at a pupil surface of the objective lens; a detection unit having a second light-condensing unit that condenses light irradiated by the irradiation unit and generated from a sample, a specular-reflection light-blocking unit that blocks specular-reflection light from the sample and light components generated near the pupil surface among the light beams condensed by the second light-condensing unit, and an image-forming unit that images the light that is condensed by the second light-condensing unit and is not blocked by the specular-reflection light-blocking unit into a detector; and a defect-determination unit that detects a defect on a surface of the sample on the basis of a signal of the image imaged by the image-forming unit.

Defect inspection device and defect inspection method

A defect inspection method and device for irradiating a linear region on a surface-patterned sample mounted on a table, with illumination light from an inclined direction to the sample, next detecting in each of a plurality of directions an image of the light scattered from the sample irradiated with the illumination light, then processing signals obtained by the detection of the images of the scattered light, and thereby detecting a defect present on the sample; wherein the step of detecting the scattered light image in the plural directions is performed through oval shaped lenses in which elevation angles of the optical axes thereof are different from each other, within one plane perpendicular to a plane formed by the normal to the surface of the table on which to mount the sample and the longitudinal direction of the linear region irradiated with the irradiation light.

Defect inspection method and defect inspection device

To detect a bridge defect between lines of a line pattern formed on a sample at pitches narrower than the wavelength of inspection light, a defect inspection device is configured to comprise: a light source which emits laser; a vertical illumination unit which applies the laser to the sample from a vertical direction via an objective lens by converting the laser into linearly polarized light by using a polarization conversion unit in a state polarized in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the line pattern; an oblique illumination unit which applies the laser to the sample from an oblique direction; a detection optical unit including an optical filter which selectively transmits a scattered light component from the defect by converting the polarization state of the reflected/scattered light; and a signal processing unit which detects the defect on the sample by processing a detection signal.

A defect inspection device includes an irradiation unit for simultaneously irradiating different regions on a sample with illumination light under different optical conditions, the sample being predesigned to include patterns repeatedly formed thereupon, wherein the patterns are to be formed in the same shape; a detection unit for detecting, for each of the different regions, a beam of light reflected from each region irradiated with the illumination light; a defect candidate extraction unit for extracting defect candidates under the different optical conditions for each of the different regions, by processing detection signals corresponding to the reflected light which is detected; a defect extraction unit for extracting defects by integrating the defect candidates extracted under the different optical conditions; and a defect classifying unit for calculating feature quantities of the extracted defects and classifies the defects according to the calculated feature quantities.

Defect inspection method and device thereof

To process a signal from a plurality of detectors without being affected by a variation in the height of a substrate, and to detect more minute defects on the substrate, a defect inspection device is provided with a photoelectric converter having a plurality of rows of optical sensor arrays in each of first and second light-collecting/detecting unit and a processing unit for processing a detection signal from the first and the second light-collecting/detecting unit to determine the extent to which the positions of the focal points of the first and the second light-collecting/detecting unit are misaligned with respect to the surface of a test specimen, and processing the detection signal to correct a misalignment between the first and the second light-collecting/detecting unit, and the corrected detection signal outputted from the first and the second light-collecting/detecting unit are combined together to detect the defects on the test specimen.

Defect inspection method and device therefor

An optical filtering device and an optical inspection apparatus for detecting a defect in a high sensitivity using an optical filtering device which includes a shutter array formed in a two-dimensionally on an optically opaque thin film produced on a SOI wafer and the SOI wafer is removed at portions thereof on the lower side of the shutter patterns to form perforation portions while working electrodes are formed at the remaining portion of the SOI wafer, a glass substrate having electrode patterns formed on the surface thereof and having the shutter array mounted thereon, and a power supply section for supplying electric power to the electrode patterns formed on the glass substrate and the working electrodes of the SOI wafer. And the working electrodes is controlled to cause the shutter patterns to carry out opening and closing movements with respect to the perforation portions to carry out optical filtering.

Optical filtering device, defect inspection method and apparatus therefor

An invention being applied is a defect detecting apparatus that has: an illuminating optical system with a laser light source for irradiating a sample on whose surface a pattern is formed with light; a detecting optical system with a sensor for detecting light generated from the sample illuminated by the illuminating optical system; and a signal processing unit that extracts a defect from an image based on the light detected by the detecting optical system, in which an amplification rate of the sensor is dynamically changed during a time when the light is detected by the detecting optical system.

Defect inspecting apparatus and defect inspecting method

In order to enable inspections to be conducted at a sampling rate higher than the pulse oscillation frequency of a pulsed laser beam emitted from a laser light source, without damaging samples, a defect inspection method is disclosed, wherein: a single pulse of a pulsed laser beam emitted from the laser light source is split into a plurality of pulses; a sample is irradiated with this pulse-split pulsed laser beam; scattered light produced by the sample due to the irradiation is focused and detected; and defects on the sample are detected by using information obtained by focusing and detecting the scattered light from the sample. Said defect inspection method is configured such that the splitting a single pulse of the pulsed laser beam into a plurality of pulses is controlled in such a manner that the peak values of the split pulses are substantially uniform.

Growing community of inventors

Fujisawa, Japan

Yukihiro Shibata