System and method for detecting integrated circuit pattern defects
First Claim
1. A method for inspecting a photomask used to generate integrated circuit patterns on a wafer, the method comprising:
- a computer performing steps comprising;
generating a potentially defective circuit pattern set, having a plurality of potentially defective circuit patterns including a first circuit pattern that is defective and a second circuit pattern that is valid, wherein generating the potentially defective circuit pattern set includes;
applying an algorithm to data representative of images of a plurality of circuit patterns to generate data representative of images of valid circuit patterns andcomparing the data representative of images of a plurality of circuit patterns to the data representative of images of valid circuit patterns to identify at least one potentially defective circuit pattern; and
determining a defective circuit pattern in the potentially defective circuit pattern set using a codebook including codes representative of known valid circuit patterns or codes representative of known invalid circuit patterns.
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Accused Products
Abstract
There are many inventions described and illustrated herein. In one aspect, the present invention is directed to a technique of, and system for inspecting integrated circuits, including, for example, patterns projected, provided or formed on a wafer using photomasks, or patterns on the photomask itself. The inspection system and technique of this aspect includes first identifying, determining and/or detecting areas and/or patterns that are potentially defective by removing, filtering and/or eliminating from a set of potential defects any and/or all typical, regular or normal patterns. The identification, determination and/or detection of potential defects may be performed relatively quickly by a rapidly executing algorithm. In this way, a first or “coarse” analysis is performed rapidly and some, many, all or substantially all of the regular, normal or typical patterns are eliminated from further analysis. Thereafter, a second more detailed analysis is performed. This second analysis focuses on the set of potential defects that were identified, determined and/or detected during the first analysis of the photomask or wafer (i.e., the “coarse” analysis). The second analysis may be considerably a more detailed or a “fine” analysis relative to the first or “coarse” analysis. Indeed, in one embodiment, the second analysis may implement a more computational intensive process, without sacrificing throughput, since only a small portion of the photomask or wafer is inspected in the second analysis. In this way, the detailed analysis of the defect candidates may identify (i) all or substantially all of the actual defects and/or (ii) only the actual defects from the potential defects identified during the first analysis.
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Citations
35 Claims
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1. A method for inspecting a photomask used to generate integrated circuit patterns on a wafer, the method comprising:
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a computer performing steps comprising; generating a potentially defective circuit pattern set, having a plurality of potentially defective circuit patterns including a first circuit pattern that is defective and a second circuit pattern that is valid, wherein generating the potentially defective circuit pattern set includes; applying an algorithm to data representative of images of a plurality of circuit patterns to generate data representative of images of valid circuit patterns and comparing the data representative of images of a plurality of circuit patterns to the data representative of images of valid circuit patterns to identify at least one potentially defective circuit pattern; and determining a defective circuit pattern in the potentially defective circuit pattern set using a codebook including codes representative of known valid circuit patterns or codes representative of known invalid circuit patterns. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. An inspection system to inspect a photomask used to generate integrated circuit patterns on a wafer, the system comprising:
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a user interface unit; a data storage unit; a data processing unit, coupled to the user interface unit and the data storage unit, to identify a defective circuit pattern in an integrated circuit pattern, the data processing unit configured to; generate a potentially defective circuit pattern set, having a plurality of potentially defective circuit patterns including a first circuit pattern that is defective and a second circuit pattern that is valid, by applying an algorithm to data representative of images of a plurality of circuit patterns to generate data representative of images of valid circuit patterns and comparing the data representative of images of a plurality of circuit patterns to the data representative of images of valid circuit patterns to identify at least one potentially defective circuit pattern; and determine a defective circuit pattern in the potentially defective circuit pattern set using a codebook including codes representative of known valid circuit patterns or codes representative of known invalid circuit patterns. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification