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Method and apparatus for classifying a defect on a semiconductor wafer

  • US 5,943,437 A
  • Filed: 10/07/1996
  • Issued: 08/24/1999
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/09/1995
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A method of detecting and classifying a defect on a semiconductor wafer including wiring and non-wiring regions, comprising the steps of:

  • providing a surface image of a semiconductor wafer having a defect as an inspection image, said surface image including images of wiring and non-wiring regions;

    storing a surface image of a semiconductor wafer having no defect as a reference image;

    forming a wiring mask image from said reference image, said wiring mask image being comprised of first pixel data associated with said wiring region and second pixel data associated with said non-wiring region;

    forming a non-wiring mask image from said reference image, said non-wiring mask image being comprised of second pixel data associated with said wiring region and first pixel data associated with said non-wiring region;

    determining first information with respect to luminance or light intensity of said wiring region from said inspection image, including extracting said defect in said wiring region based on said inspection image and said wiring mask image to form a first extract image;

    determining second information with respect to luminance or light intensity of said non-wiring region from said inspection image, including extracting said defect in said non-wiring region based on said inspection image and said non-wiring mask image to form a second extract image, wherein said first information is obtained from said first extract image and said second information is obtained from said second extract image; and

    classifying said defect based on said first and second information.

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