Pattern defects inspection system
First Claim
1. A pattern defects inspection system comprising:
- conversion means for radiating light on an object to be inspected on which a pattern is formed, said pattern having a light-shielding pattern and a phase shift pattern receiving an optical image of the pattern, and photoelectrically converting the image;
means for generating measurement pattern data corresponding to the pattern on the basis of a signal obtained from said conversion means;
storage means for storing pattern design data used to form the pattern on the object;
bit pattern generating means for developing the pattern design data in said storage means into bit pattern data; and
determining means for determining a presence or absence of defects in the pattern formed on the object by comparing the measurement pattern data with data obtained by performing predetermined filtering processing with respect to the bit pattern data developed by said bit pattern generating means,wherein said bit pattern generating means further comprising;
graphic pattern interpreting means for recognizing and separating light-shielding pattern design data used to form the light-shielding pattern and phase shift design data used to form the phase shift pattern;
bit pattern development means for developing a corresponding bit pattern of said light-shielding pattern design data and said phase shift design data;
pattern memory means for storing the developed bit pattern data temporarily; and
output means for synthesizing and reading out the bit pattern data to said determining means.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A pattern defects inspection system inspects the presence/absence of pattern defects in a photomask as an object to be inspected in which a chromium pattern and a phase shift pattern are formed together. Measurement data output from a sensor circuit for generating measurement pattern data by inspecting measurement patterns corresponding to two types of patterns formed on the object by radiating light on the object, and two identifiable design data stored in a magnetic disk unit in advance, i.e., chromium pattern design data used to form a chromium pattern and phase shift pattern design data used to form a phase shift pattern, are read out by a bit pattern generator for performing development processing. The two types of bit data obtained by the bit pattern generator are synthesized according to the same coordinate definition. The synthesized design data is compared with the measurement data by a comparator. As a result, the presence/absence of pattern defects in the object can be determined.
26 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A pattern defects inspection system comprising:
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conversion means for radiating light on an object to be inspected on which a pattern is formed, said pattern having a light-shielding pattern and a phase shift pattern receiving an optical image of the pattern, and photoelectrically converting the image; means for generating measurement pattern data corresponding to the pattern on the basis of a signal obtained from said conversion means; storage means for storing pattern design data used to form the pattern on the object; bit pattern generating means for developing the pattern design data in said storage means into bit pattern data; and determining means for determining a presence or absence of defects in the pattern formed on the object by comparing the measurement pattern data with data obtained by performing predetermined filtering processing with respect to the bit pattern data developed by said bit pattern generating means, wherein said bit pattern generating means further comprising; graphic pattern interpreting means for recognizing and separating light-shielding pattern design data used to form the light-shielding pattern and phase shift design data used to form the phase shift pattern; bit pattern development means for developing a corresponding bit pattern of said light-shielding pattern design data and said phase shift design data; pattern memory means for storing the developed bit pattern data temporarily; and output means for synthesizing and reading out the bit pattern data to said determining means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A pattern defects detecting inspection system comprising:
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conversion means for radiating light on an object on which a pattern is formed, receiving an optical image of the pattern, said pattern having a light shielding pattern and a phase shift pattern and for photoelectrically converting the image; means for generating measurement pattern data corresponding to the pattern on the basis of a signal obtained by said conversion means; storage means for storing light-shielding pattern design data used to form the light-shielding pattern on the object and phase shift pattern design data used to form the phase shift pattern on the object according to the same coordinates definition, the two design data being stored to be identifiable; bit pattern generating means for developing the light-shielding pattern design data and the phase shift pattern design data read out from said storage means into bit pattern data individually; determining means for determining a presence or absence of defects in the pattern formed on the object by comparing the measurement pattern data with data obtained by performing filtering processing with respect to the bit pattern data developed by said bit pattern generating means; and selecting/reading means for selecting data representing the defects as the bit pattern data supplied to said determining means from among the light-shielding pattern design data, the phase shift pattern design data and synthetic data wherein the light-shieldingpattern design data and the phase shift pattern design data are synthesized according to the same coordinate definition, in accordance with the measurement pattern data, and for reading out the selected data from said storage means - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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12. A pattern defects inspection system comprising:
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conversion means for radiating light on an object to be inspected on which a pattern is formed, said pattern having a light-shielding pattern and a phase shift pattern, for receiving an optical image of the pattern, and for photoelectrically converting the image; means for generating measurement pattern data corresponding to the pattern on the basis of a signal obtained from said conversion means; storage means for storing pattern design data used to form the pattern on the object; bit pattern generating means for developing the pattern design data read out from said storage means into bit pattern data; and determining means for determining the presence or absence of defects in the pattern formed on the object by comparing the measurement pattern data with data obtained by performing predetermined filtering processing with respect to the bit pattern data developed by said bit pattern generating means, wherein said storage means stores light-shielding pattern design data used to form the light-shielding pattern on the object and phase shift pattern design data used to form the phase shift pattern on the object according to the same coordinates definition, said bit pattern generating means is constituted by light-shielding pattern bit development means for developing the light-shielding pattern design data, used to form the light-shielding pattern on the object, into bit data, and phase shift pattern bit development means for developing the phase shift pattern design data, used to form the phase shift pattern on the object, into bit data, and the bit data, developed by developing the light-shielding pattern design data using said light-shielding pattern bit development means, and the bit data, developed by developing the phase shift pattern design data using said phase shift pattern bit development means, are output to said determining means according to the same coordinates definition. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification