Defect inspection method and apparatus therefor
First Claim
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1. A defect inspection apparatus comprising:
- laser source means for emitting a laser beam;
coherence reducing means for reducing the coherence of said laser beam emitted from said laser source;
irradiation means for irradiating on a sample said coherence-reduced laser beam from said coherence reducing means;
image detecting means for detecting an image of said sample on which said laser beam is irradiated by said irradiation means;
polarized state control means placed between said laser source and said image detecting means; and
defect detecting means for detecting a defect of a pattern formed on said sample on the basis of information about said image of said sample detected by said image detecting means.
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Abstract
A defect inspection apparatus for inspecting a fine circuit pattern with high resolution to detect a defective portion is constructed to have an objective lens for detecting an image of a sample, a laser illumination unit for illuminating the sample through the objective lens, a unit for reducing the coherence of the laser illumination, an accumulation type detector, and a unit for processing the detected image signal.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A defect inspection apparatus comprising:
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laser source means for emitting a laser beam;
coherence reducing means for reducing the coherence of said laser beam emitted from said laser source;
irradiation means for irradiating on a sample said coherence-reduced laser beam from said coherence reducing means;
image detecting means for detecting an image of said sample on which said laser beam is irradiated by said irradiation means;
polarized state control means placed between said laser source and said image detecting means; and
defect detecting means for detecting a defect of a pattern formed on said sample on the basis of information about said image of said sample detected by said image detecting means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A defect inspection apparatus comprising:
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laser source means for emitting laser right;
coherence reducing means for reducing the coherence of said laser light emitted from said laser source;
irradiating means for irradiating said coherence-reduced laser light from said coherence reducing means onto a sample;
image detecting means for detecting an image of said sample on which said laser light is irradiated from said irradiating means; and
image processing means for processing said image of said sample detected by said image detecting means, whereby wafer disks of 200 mm in diameter can be processed at a speed corresponding to a throughput of three disks or above per hour, the pixels of said image can be processed at 50 MHz or below, and a pattern formed on said sample can be detected including defects of 50 nm or below.
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20. A defect inspection method comprising the steps of:
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emitting laser light;
reducing the coherence of said emitted laser light;
irradiating said coherence-reduced laser light on a sample;
imaging said sample on which said coherence-reduced laser light is irradiated, while the polarized state of said laser light is being controlled; and
detecting a defect of a pattern formed on said sample on the basis of information about an image obtained by imaging while the polarized state is being controlled. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A defect inspection method comprising the steps of:
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emitting laser light;
reducing the coherence of said emitted laser light;
irradiating said coherence-reduced laser light on a sample;
imaging said sample on which said coherence-reduced laser light is irradiated; and
inspecting a defect of a pattern by processing an image obtained by said imaging, wherein said pattern defect inspection is performed by processing wafer disks of 200 mm in diameter at a speed corresponding to a throughput of three disks or above per hour, and processing the respective pixels of said image at a rate of 50 MHz or below so that defects including sizes of 50-nm or below can be detected from said pattern formed on said sample.
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Specification