Applied Materials Israel Limited

Ziv Parizat

Moshe Rosenweig

Boaz Cohen

Gadi Greenberg

Shay Attal

Sivan Lifschitz

Oded O Dassa

Implementations of the disclosure provide methods for generating an in-die reference for die-to-die defect detection techniques. The inspection methods using in-die reference comprise finding similar blocks of a lithographic mask, the similar blocks are defined by similar CAD information. A comparison distance is selected based on (i) areas of the similar blocks and (ii) spatial relationships between the similar blocks. The similar blocks are aggregated, based on the comparison distance, to provide multiple aggregated areas; and comparable regions of the lithographic mask are defined based on the multiple aggregate blocks. Images of at least some of the comparable regions of the lithographic mask are acquired using an inspection module. The acquired images are compared.

System and methods of generating comparable regions of a lithographic mask

Design information related to an irrelevant area of a first layer of semiconductor article may be received. The first layer may be manufactured by illuminating a lithographic mask during a lithographic process. First layer information associated with an outcome or an expected outcome of the illuminating of the lithographic mask during the lithographic process may be received. Information corresponding to a layout of an irrelevant area may be identified in the first layer information. A differentiating attribute that differentiates the layout of the irrelevant area from a layout of a relevant area of the first layer of the semiconductor article may be identified. The differentiating attribute may be used to determine one or more other irrelevant areas of the first layer of the semiconductor article.

System and method for design based inspection

A system for design based inspection of a lithographic mask of a first layer of an article, the system may include a decision module and a memory module; wherein the memory module is configured to store (a) first layer information about an outcome of an illumination of the lithographic mask during a lithographic process, (b) design information related to an irrelevant area to be removed from the first layer of the article after a manufacturing of the first layer of the article; and wherein the decision module is configured to process the first layer information to detect lithographic mask defects and to reduce a significance of a lithographic mask defect that is positioned within the irrelevant area.

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Holon, Israel

Ziv Parizat