Method and apparatus for classifying a defect on a semiconductor wafer
First Claim
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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Accused Products
Abstract
A surface image of a semiconductor wafer having a defect is picked up as a inspection image while a surface image of a semiconductor wafer having no defect is stored in an image memory as a reference image. A density difference image between the inspection image and the reference image. By extracting the defect in wiring and non-wiring regions from the density difference image, extract images are obtained. Two luminance information for wiring and non-wiring regions are obtained from extract images. Based on the luminance information, the type of the defect is determined and a production process where the defect has occurred is detect.
79 Citations
14 Claims
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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:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. A method of detecting and classifying a defect on a semiconductor wafer including wiring and non-wiring regions, comprising the steps of:
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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 density difference image between said inspection image and said reference image; forming a defect mask image from said density difference image, said defect mask image being comprised of first pixel data associated with portions of said semiconductor wafer having said defect therein and second pixel data associated with other portions of said semiconductor wafer not having said defect therein; 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, said defect mask 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, said defect mask 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. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6)
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7. An apparatus for detecting and classifying a defect on a semiconductor wafer including wiring and non-wiring regions, comprising:
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means for providing a surface image of a semiconductor wafer having a defect as an inspection image, said surface image including images of said wiring and non-wiring regions; means for determining first information with respect to luminance or light intensity of said wiring region from said inspection image; means for determining second information with respect to luminance or light intensity of said non-wiring region from said inspection image; means for storing a surface image of a semiconductor wafer having no defect as a reference image; means for 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; means for 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, wherein said first information determining means include a means for extracting said defect in said wiring region based on said inspection image and said wiring mask image to form a first extract image, and said second information determining means includes a means for 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, said first information being obtained from said first extract image and said second information being obtained from said second extract image; and means for classifying said defect based on said first and second information. - View Dependent Claims (8)
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9. An apparatus for classifying a defect on a semiconductor wafer including wiring and non-wiring regions, comprising:
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means for providing a surface image of a semiconductor wafer having a defect as an inspection image, said surface image including images of said wiring and non-wiring regions; means for determining first information with respect to luminance or light intensity of said wiring region from said inspection image; means for determining second information with respect to luminance or light intensity of said non-wiring region from said inspection image; means for storing a surface image of a semiconductor wafer having no defect as a reference image; means for forming a defect mask image from said density difference image, said defect mask image being comprised of first pixel data associated with said defect and second pixel data associated with portion other than said defect; means for forming a wiring mask image from said reference image, said wiring mask image being comprised of the first pixel data associated with said wiring region and the second pixel data associated with said non-wiring region; means for forming a non-wiring mask image from said reference image, said non-wiring mask image being comprised of the second pixel data associated with said wiring region and the first pixel data associated with said non-wiring region, wherein said first information determining means includes a means for extracting said defect in said wiring region based on said inspection image and said wiring mask image to form a first extract image, and said second information determining means includes a means for 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, said first information being obtained from said first extract image and said second information being obtained from said second extract image; and means for classifying said defect based on said first and second information. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of classifying a defect on a semiconductor wafer including wiring and non-wiring regions, comprising the steps of:
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providing a surface image of a semiconductor wafer having a defect as an inspection image, said surface image including images of said wiring and non-wiring regions; storing a surface image of a semiconductor wafer having no defect as a reference image; forming a density difference image between said inspection image and said reference image; forming a defect mask image from said density difference image, said defect mask image being comprised of first data corresponding to portions of the semiconductor wafer having the defect and second data corresponding to other portions of the semiconductor wafer not having the defect; forming a wiring mask image from said reference image, said wiring mask image being comprised of first data corresponding to the wiring region and second data corresponding to the non-wiring region; forming a non-wiring mask image from said reference image, said wiring mask image being comprised of second data corresponding to the wiring region and first data corresponding to the non-wiring region; determining first information with respect to luminance or light intensity of said wiring region from said inspection image, including extracting first data in the wiring region of said inspection image that agree with the first data at corresponding positions of the defect 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 first data in the non-wiring region of said inspection image that agree with the first data at corresponding positions of the defect mask image to form a second extract image, wherein the first information is obtained from said first extract image, and the second information is obtained from said second extract image; and classifying said defect based on said first and second information.
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14. An apparatus for classifying a defect on a semiconductor wafer including wiring and non-wiring regions, comprising:
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means for providing a surface image of a semiconductor wafer having a defect as an inspection image, said surface image including images of said wiring and non-wiring regions; means for determining first information with respect to luminance or light intensity of said wiring region from said inspection image; means for determining second information with respect to luminance or light intensity of said non-wiring region from said inspection image; means for storing a surface image of a semiconductor wafer having no defect as a reference image; means for forming a density difference image between said inspection image and said reference image; means for forming a defect mask image from said density difference image, said defect mask image being comprised of first data corresponding to portions of the semiconductor wafer having the defect and second data corresponding to portions of the semiconductor wafer not having the defect; means for forming a wiring mask image from said reference image, said wiring mask image being comprised of first data corresponding to the wiring region and second data corresponding to the non-wiring region; means for forming a non-wiring mask image from said reference image, said non-wiring mask image being comprised of second data corresponding to the wiring region and first data corresponding to the non-wiring region, wherein said first information determining means includes a means for extracting first data in the wiring region of the inspection image that agree with the first data at corresponding portions of the defect mask image to form a first extract image, and said second information determining means includes a means for extracting first data in the non-wiring region of the inspection image that agree with the first data at corresponding positions of the defect mask image to form a second extract image, said first information being obtained from said first extract image and said second information being obtained from said second extract image; and means for classifying said defect based on said first and second information.
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Specification