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:
Jan. 21, 2014
Filed:
Dec. 21, 2009
Minoru Harada, Fujisawa, JP;
Ryo Nakagaki, Kawasaki, JP;
Kenji Obara, Kawasaki, JP;
Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
Provided is a defect observation apparatus capable of analyzing a structure such as an arrangement and a vertical relationship of a circuit pattern formed by using design information of a sample, creating a non-defective product image from a defect image based on the analysis results, and detecting a defect by comparative inspection. The defect observation apparatus is provided with a computing unitwhich receives an input regarding design information of a sampleto be observed from a storage unit, receives an input regarding observable layer information previously set to the sample to be observed from the storage unitbased on the design information including one or more layers, receives an input regarding defect coordinates on the sample detected by another inspection apparatus from the storage unit, analyzes, for a defect on the sampleto be observed based on the defect coordinates, a circuit pattern structure in a peripheral area of the defect coordinates based on the design information and the layer information, estimates a non-defective product image based on the analysis result of the circuit pattern structure, and detects a defect by a comparative inspection between the non-defective product image and image information from an image obtaining unit.