The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 23, 2013
Filed:
Dec. 24, 2009
Yuta Urano, Yokohama, JP;
Akira Hamamatsu, Yokohama, JP;
Shunji Maeda, Yokohama, JP;
Kaoru Sakai, Yokohama, JP;
Yuta Urano, Yokohama, JP;
Akira Hamamatsu, Yokohama, JP;
Shunji Maeda, Yokohama, JP;
Kaoru Sakai, Yokohama, JP;
Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A pattern inspection apparatus is provided to compare images of regions, corresponding to each other, of patterns that are formed so as to be identical and judge that non-coincident portions in the images are defects. The pattern inspection apparatus is equipped with an image comparing section which plots individual pixels of an inspection subject image in a feature space and detects excessively deviated points in the feature space as defects. Defects can be detected correctly even when the same patterns in images have a brightness difference due to a difference in the thickness of a film formed on a wafer.