Method for extracting objective image

• US 7,103,209 B1
• Filed: 11/20/2000
• Issued: 09/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: SII NanoTechnology Inc. (Hitachi High- Tech Corporation)
• Original Assignee: SII NanoTechnology Inc. (Hitachi High- Tech Corporation)
• Inventors: Aita, Kazuo
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAWAN, SHEELA C
• Application Number:
  US10/130,881
• Time in Patent Office: 2,115 Days
• Field of Search: 382/144, 382/181, 382/209, 382/237, 382/252, 382/270, 382/199, 382/176, 382/261, 382/232, 382/162, 382/205, 358/1.9, 358/296, 358/3.01, 358/3.14, 250/553, 250/559.3
• US Class Current: 382/144
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2021/95676 Masks, reticles, shadow masks
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/956 Inspecting patterns on the surface of objects contactless testing of electronic circuits G01R31/308; testing currency G07D; manufacturing processes per se of semiconductor devices implementing a measuring step H01L22/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/20 using local operators

Abstract

Noted portions of an image, such as a pin point hole in an isolated area or a pattern contour that forms a continuous boundary area, are clearly displayed by first erasing background noise by acquiring information regarding differences between an image detection signal (pixel) of each scanned position (dot) in matrix form and image detection signals of the surrounding scanned positions, and secondly, by adopting a value that is either a largest or smallest value greater than or equal to zero among a plurality of sets of information on value differences as new image information for the scanned position.

Claims

1. A noted image extraction method in image processing technology of an image recognized as matrix-shaped pixel information, the method comprising:

obtaining a difference information between an image detection signal of the noted portion and image detection signals for surrounding scanned positions as an image signal for each scanned position, wherein difference information for differences between image detection signal values for each scanned position and surrounding scanned positions is obtained by subtracting image detection signal values for surrounding scanned positions from image detection signal values for each scanned position; and

adopting a smallest value of greater than or equal to zero among the set of values resulting from the calculation of differences as the value for recognizing a pin point hole in an isolated area and adopting a largest value of greater than or equal to zero among the set of values resulting from the calculation of differences as the value for recognizing a pattern contour of a continuous pattern area.

2. A noted image extraction method according to claim 1;

wherein a distance between each scanning position used in difference information calculation and a surrounding scanned position is taken to be the scanning beam diameter, with the image being a charged particle scanning microscope image.

3. A noted image extraction method in image processing technology of an image recognized as matrix-shaped pixel information, the method comprising:

obtaining a difference information between an image detection signal of the noted portion and image detection signals for surrounding scanned positions as an image signal for each scanned position, wherein difference information for differences between image detection signal values for each scanned position and surrounding scanned positions is obtained by subtracting mean values for image detection signal values for surrounding scanned positions at both sides of each scanned position from image detection signal values for each scanned position; and

adopting a smallest value of greater than or equal to zero among the set of values resulting from the calculation of differences as the value for recognizing a pin point hole in an isolated area and adopting a largest value of greater than or equal to zero among the set of values resulting from the calcuation of differences as the value for recognizing a pattern contour of a continuous pattern area.

4. A noted image extraction method according to claim 3;

wherein a distance between each scanning position used in difference information calculation and a surrounding scanned position is taken to be the scanning beam diameter, with the image being a charged particle scanning microscope image.

5. A noted image extraction method in image processing technology of an image recognized as matrix-shaped pixel information, the method comprising:

obtaining a difference information between an image detection signal of the noted portion and image detection signals for surrounding scanned positions as an image signal for each scanned position, wherein difference information for differences between image detection signal values for each scanned position and surrounding scanned positions is obtained by subtracting absolute values of differences between mean values of image detection signal values for surrounding scanned positions at both sides of each scanned position and mean values of image detection signal values obtained from the surrounding scanned positions at both sides that run perpendicularly to the surrounding scanned positions at both sides of each scanned position from image detection signal values for each scanned position; and

adopting a smallest value of greater than or equal to zero among the set of values resulting from the calculation of differences as the value for recognizing a pin point hole in an isolated area and adopting a largest value of greater than or equal to zero among the set of values resulting from the calcuation of differences as the value for recognizing a pattern contour of a continuous pattern area.

6. A noted image extraction method according to claim 5;

wherein a distance between each scanning position used in difference information calculation and a surrounding scanned position is taken to be the scanning beam diameter, with the image being a charged particle scanning microscope image.