Defect analysis

• US 8,064,682 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Issued: 11/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Alqudah, Yazan A., Moneum, Mohamed Abdel, Hajj, Hazem
• Primary Examiner(s): Seth; Manav
• Application Number:
  US11/824,510
• Publication Number:
  US 20090003684A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,607 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/141, 382144-152, 714/2, 714/100, 714724-737
• US Class Current: 382/144
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67288 Monitoring of warpage, curvature, damage, defects or the like

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method to analyze a semiconductor wafer comprises extracting inline defect data from a data source, counting a total number of inline defects and end-of-line defects, terminating the analysis when the total number of inline defects and end-of-line defects exceeds a threshold, and mapping the inline defects onto the end-of-line defects when the total number of inline defects and end-of-line defects is less than a threshold.

Claims

1. A method to analyze a semiconductor wafer, comprising:

extracting inline defect data from a data source;

counting a total number of inline defects and end-of-line defects;

terminating the analysis when the total number of inline defects and end-of-line defects exceeds a threshold; and

mapping the inline defects onto the end-of-line defects when the total number of inline defects and end-of-line defects is less than a threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting inline information from a data source comprises extracting information about a defect location, a layer on which the defect resides, and an inspection time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein mapping the inline defects onto the end-of-line defects when the total number of inline defects and end-of-line defects is less than a threshold comprises sorting the inline defect data in a chronological order.

4. The method of claim 1, mapping the inline defects onto the end-of-line defects when the total number of inline defects and end-of-line defects is less than a threshold comprises obtaining sorting location data relating to the inline defects.

5. The mask of claim 1, wherein mapping the inline defects onto the end-of-line defects when the total number of inline defects and end-of-line defects is less than a threshold comprises correlating a location of an inline defect with a location of an end-of-line defect.