Method and apparatus of inspecting foreign substance on substrate surface

Abstract

This invention comprises an inspection method conducted by rotary-coating a photoresist on the surface of a semiconductor substrate, irradiating ultraviolet rays using an exposure instrument such as a stepper, exposing the entire photoresist, removing the exposed photoresist using an alkali developing solution, and irradiating a laser beam onto the semiconductor substrate to detect foreign substances through the scattered light. Accordingly, gel foreign substances remain on the semiconductor substrate even after the steps of exposure and development, so that their presence can be detected surely. Furthermore, this invention provides a method and an apparatus of surely detecting gel foreign substances which are present in a photoresist film or between patterns by exposing the photoresist and performing etching and ashing, using gel foreign substances which remained through the development as a mask. A photoresist is rotary-coated on a wafer, and ultraviolet rays are irradiated on the photoresist using an exposure instrument such as a stepper, thereby exposing the entire wafer. Then, the photoresist is removed with an alkali developing solution, and the wafer which has the photoresist removed is etched, ashed, and washed. A laser beam is irradiated on the surface of the ashed wafer, and foreign substances are inspected from the reflecting scattered light.