Appearance inspection apparatus and method in which plural threads are processed in parallel

• US 6,987,894 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2001
• Issued: 01/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Electronics Corporation (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Inventors: Sasaki, Yoshihiro, Nagao, Masahiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehta, Bhavesh M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): STREGE, JOHN B
• Application Number:
  US09/841,096
• Publication Number:
  US 20010042065A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,728 Days
• Field of Search: 382/141, 382/145, 382/146, 382/147, 382/304, 700/4, 700/110, 345/505, 718/107, 717/119, 712/203, 235/462.1
• US Class Current: 382/304
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/311 of integrated circuits G01R31/31728 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/319 Tester hardware, i.e. output processing circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 22/12 for structural parameters, e.g. thickness, line width, refractive index, temperature, warp, bond strength, defects, optical inspection, electrical measurement of structural dimensions, metallurgic measurement of diffusions electrical measurement of diffusions H01L22/14

Abstract

An appearance inspection apparatus is composed of a memory 14, a thread generator and a plurality of CPUs 10 to 13. The memory 14 stores image data of an appearance of an IC. The thread generator generates a thread in which a procedure is described for independently processing the image data stored in the memory 14 and storing the processing result into the memory 14. The plurality of CPUs 10 to 13 for executing the plurality of threads generated by the thread generator, in parallel. Thus, this can provide an appearance inspection apparatus and an appearance inspection method that can execute an appearance inspection at a high speed, irrespectively of a simple configuration.

Claims

1. An appearance inspection apparatus comprising:

a memory that stores image data of an appearance of an inspection target;

a thread generator that generates k sets of n (k is a positive integer and n is an integer equal to or greater than

     2) threads in each of which procedures are described for respectively processing the image data in n sub-regions obtained by dividing one inspection region on the image data stored in said memory and storing a processing result into said memory; and

a plurality of CPUs which executes said k sets of said n threads generated by said thread generator in parallel, respectively,

wherein said thread generator further generates m (m is a positive integer) threads in each of which a procedure is described for collectively processing the image data in said n sub-regions, and one of said plurality of CPUs singly executes said m threads generated by said thread generator.

2. The appearance inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said n and m are determined based on a kind of image processing to be executed or a size of said inspection region.

3. The appearance inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said n and m are determined based on a result of an actual measurement of processing times of said plurality of CPUs under an arbitrary combination of n and m.

4. The appearance inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in each of said n threads, the procedure is described for executing a predetermined kind of image processing and another kind of image processing in succession.

5. An appearance inspection method comprising the steps of:

storing image data of an appearance of an inspection target in a memory;

generating k sets of n (k is a positive integer and n is an integer equal to or greater than

     2) threads in which procedures are described for respectively processing the image data in n sub-regions obtained by dividing one inspection region on the image data stored in said memory and storing a processing result into the memory;

executing the generated k sets of said n threads in parallel;

generating m (m is a positive integer) threads in each of which a procedure is described for collectively processing the image data in said n sub-regions; and

executing said generated m threads in serial.

6. The appearance inspection method according to claim 5, wherein said n and m are determined based on a kind of image processing to be executed or a size of said inspection region.

7. The appearance inspection method according to claim 5, wherein said n and m are determined based on a result of an actual measurement of processing times executed under an arbitrary combination of n and m.

8. The appearance inspection method according to claim 5, wherein in each of said n threads, the procedure is described for executing a predetermined kind of image processing and another kind of image processing in succession.