Method and system for manufacturing semiconductor devices, and method and system for inspecting semiconductor devices

• US 5,801,965 A
• Filed: 12/22/1994
• Issued: 09/01/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Takagi, Yuji, Ono, Makoto, Doi, Hideaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Application Number:
  US08/362,763
• Time in Patent Office: 1,349 Days
• Field of Search: 364/552, 364/468, 364/550, 364/556.01, 364/468.17, 364/468.28, 437/8, 437/209, 437/194, 437/195, 437/190, 356/338, 356/369, 356/430, 356/237, 356/431, 382/225, 382/228, 382/147, 382/256, 382/149, 382/218, 382/259, 382/221, 382/286, 395/902, 395/904, 395/906
• US Class Current: 702/35
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/94 Investigating contamination, e.g. dust G01N21/85 takes precedence

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and system of inspecting a product, including extracting defects from the product, classifying the defects on the basis of information about the extracted defects representing the analogy of the defects, extracting the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification, and feeding back the feature data of the extracted defects for inspection. The method and system is characterized in that the extracted feature data of the defects is fed back for inspecting the product. The present invention also relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor electric or electronic device, including extracting defects from the semiconductor electric or electronic device, classifying the defects on the basis of information about the extracted defects representing the analogy of the defects, extracting the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification, and feeding back the feature data of the extracted defects to an apparatus for manufacturing the semiconductor electric or electronic device.

Claims

1. An inspection system comprising:

an inspection means for extracting defects in a product;

a defect classifying means for classifying the defects on the basis of an analogy of the extracted defect with information about the extracted defects; and

a feature data extracting means for extracting feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification by the defect classifying means characterized in that the feature data of the defects extracted by the feature data extracting means is fed back to the inspecting means.

2. An inspection system comprising:

an automatic inspection unit that extracts defects in a product according to predetermined inspecting standards;

a defect classifying and feature extracting unit that receives information about the extracted defects from the automatic inspection unit, classifies the defects on the basis of an analogy of the defects with information about the defects, provides the result of defect classification and extracts feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification; and

a feature data converting unit that converts the feature data into inspecting standards to be used by the automatic inspection unit and feeds back the inspecting standards determined by converting the feature data to the automatic inspection unit to adjust the automatic inspection unit.

3. An inspection system according to claim 2, further comprising an instructing means for giving instructions to specify the correct result of defect classification when the result of defect classification s provided by the defect classifying and feature extracting unit is incorrect.

4. An inspection system according to claim 2, wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit has a means for visually indicating the result of defect classification to an operator to enable the operator to confirm the result of defect classification and the associated information, and to change the information or to add new information to the information.

5. An inspection system according to claim 4, further comprising an information storage means for storing the information and information about each of the corresponding defects in the product.

6. An inspection system according to claim 4, characterized by extracting the feature data of the defects from a plurality of pieces of information stored in the information storage means and information about the corresponding defects in the product, and sending the feature data to the feature data converting unit.

7. An inspection system according to claim 2, wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit has a means for visually indicating the result of defect classification to an operator to enable the operator to confirm the result of defect classification and the associated information, and to change the information or to add new information to the information.

8. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor, electric or electronic device compromising:

an automatic inspection unit that extracts defects in a semiconductor, electric or electronic device manufactured by a manufacturing machine, according to predetermined inspecting standards, during the manufacturing of the semiconductor, electric or electronic device;

a defect classifying and feature extracting unit that receives information about the defects extracted by the automatic inspection unit, classifies the defects by category on the basis of an analogy of the defects with information about the defects, provides the result of defect classification, and extracts the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification and wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit has a means capable of giving instructions to specify the correct result of defect classification when the result of defect classification provided by the defect classifying and feature extracting unit is incorrect; and

a control means that converts the feature data into control parameters for controlling the condition of the manufacturing machine, and controls the manufacturing machine according to the control parameters.

9. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor, electric or electronic device compromising:

an automatic inspection unit that extracts defects in a semiconductor, electric or electronic device manufactured by a manufacturing machine, according to predetermined inspecting standards, during the manufacturing of the semiconductor, electric or electronic device;

a defect classifying and feature extracting unit that receives information about the defects extracted by the automatic inspection unit, classifies the defects by category on the basis of an analogy of the defects with information about the defects, provides the result of defect classification, and extracts the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification and wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit has a means for indicating, when the defect cannot be classified into predetermined categories, information about defects and related information to an operator to that effect to enable the operator to assign a new or predetermined category, or a new or predetermined designation to the defect of an unknown category, and

a control means that converts the feature data into control parameters for controlling the condition of the manufacturing machine, and controls the manufacturing machine according to the control parameters.

10. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor, electric or electronic device compromising:

an automatic inspection unit that extracts defects in a semiconductor, electric or electronic device manufactured by a manufacturing machine, according to predetermined inspecting standards, during the manufacturing of the semiconductor, electric or electronic device;

a defect classifying and feature extracting unit that receives information about the defects extracted by the automatic inspection unit, classifies the defects by category on the basis of an analogy of the defects with information about the defects, provides the result of defect classification, and extracts the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification, and wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit, along with information of the condition of the apparatus, are considered to select the manufacturing machine presumably causative of a defect in consideration of the result of defect classification and the attribute of the defect, and sends the data of the defect extracted by the defect classifying and feature extracting unit to the control means; and

a control means that converts the feature data into control parameters for controlling the condition of the manufacturing machine, and controls the manufacturing machine according to the control parameters.