Method, apparatus and program for processing a contrast picture image of a semiconductor element
First Claim
1. A method for processing a contrast picture image of a semiconductor element comprising:
- a color grade number reducing processing that automatically reduces a number of color grades of said contrast picture image of the semiconductor element, obtained from a device for analysis, in keeping with the contrast of said contrast picture image;
an interconnect contrast extraction processing that classifies pixels contained in said contrast picture image, whose number of color grades has been reduced, in accordance with a preset contrast threshold value as reference, to extract an interconnect pattern fractionated into a plurality of number of contrasts, wherein said interconnect contrast extraction processing includes;
(1) turning said contrast image, whose number of color grades has been reduced, into a bi-level image, using a preset first contrast threshold value as reference, to extract an interconnect pattern of a first contrast level; and
(2) turning a contrast image, obtained after excluding the interconnect pattern already extracted in the color-grade-number-reduced contrast image, into another bi-level image, using a K'"'"'th contrast threshold value out of an N-number of the contrast threshold values as reference, where N is the number of said contrast threshold values and is an integer not less than 2, to extract an interconnect pattern of the K'"'"'th contrast level;
the sequence of operations of turning the contrast images into the bi-level images and extracting the interconnect patterns being repeated as the value of K is incremented by 1 from K=2 until K=N each time, where K is an integer;
whereby the interconnect patterns fractionated into N levels of contrast is extracted; and
a shift processing that removes noise contained in a contour portion of said interconnect pattern by shifting said contour portion;
wherebyan interconnect pattern contained in said contrast image of said semiconductor element obtained from said device for analysis is fractionated into a plurality of preset contrasts to be extracted.
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Abstract
A method for processing a contrast picture image of a semiconductor element. The method comprises; a color grade number reducing processing that automatically reduces number of color grades of the contrast picture image of the semiconductor element, obtained from a device for analysis, in keeping with the contrast of the contrast picture image; an interconnect contrast extraction processing that classifies pixels contained in the contrast picture image, whose number of color grades has been reduced, in accordance with a preset contrast threshold value as reference, to extract an interconnect pattern fractionated into a plurality of number of contrasts; and a shift processing that removes noise contained in a contour portion of the interconnect pattern by shifting the contour portion; whereby an interconnect pattern contained in the contrast image of the semiconductor element obtained from the device for analysis is fractionated into a plurality of preset contrasts to be extracted.
24 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for processing a contrast picture image of a semiconductor element comprising:
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a color grade number reducing processing that automatically reduces a number of color grades of said contrast picture image of the semiconductor element, obtained from a device for analysis, in keeping with the contrast of said contrast picture image; an interconnect contrast extraction processing that classifies pixels contained in said contrast picture image, whose number of color grades has been reduced, in accordance with a preset contrast threshold value as reference, to extract an interconnect pattern fractionated into a plurality of number of contrasts, wherein said interconnect contrast extraction processing includes; (1) turning said contrast image, whose number of color grades has been reduced, into a bi-level image, using a preset first contrast threshold value as reference, to extract an interconnect pattern of a first contrast level; and (2) turning a contrast image, obtained after excluding the interconnect pattern already extracted in the color-grade-number-reduced contrast image, into another bi-level image, using a K'"'"'th contrast threshold value out of an N-number of the contrast threshold values as reference, where N is the number of said contrast threshold values and is an integer not less than 2, to extract an interconnect pattern of the K'"'"'th contrast level;
the sequence of operations of turning the contrast images into the bi-level images and extracting the interconnect patterns being repeated as the value of K is incremented by 1 from K=2 until K=N each time, where K is an integer;whereby the interconnect patterns fractionated into N levels of contrast is extracted; and a shift processing that removes noise contained in a contour portion of said interconnect pattern by shifting said contour portion;
wherebyan interconnect pattern contained in said contrast image of said semiconductor element obtained from said device for analysis is fractionated into a plurality of preset contrasts to be extracted. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13)
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8. A device for processing a contrast picture image of a semiconductor element, comprising:
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a color grade number reducing unit that receives a contrast image of the semiconductor element obtained from a device for analysis, automatically reduces the number of color grades of the input contrast picture image based on contrast distribution of the input contrast image and that outputs a contrast image having a reduced number of color grades; an interconnect contrast extraction unit that receives said contrast image having the reduced number of color grades, classifies pixels contained in said contrast picture image, whose number of color grades has been reduced, in accordance with a preset contrast threshold value as reference, to extract an interconnect pattern fractionated into a plurality of contrasts, wherein, with the number of said contrast threshold values being N, N being an integer not less than 2, said interconnect contrast extraction unit executes processing of turning said contrast image, whose number of color grades has been reduced, into a bi-level image, with the use of a preset first one of said contrast threshold values as reference, to extract an interconnect pattern of a first contrast; and processing of turning, in continuation to extraction of the interconnect pattern of the first contrast, another contrast image, obtained after excluding the interconnect pattern already extracted in the color-grade-number-reduced contrast image, into a hi-level image, using a K'"'"'th contrast threshold value out of said N-number of the contrast threshold values as reference, to extract an interconnect pattern of the K'"'"'th contrast level;
the sequence of operations of turning into the bi-level images and interconnect pattern extraction being repeated as the value of K is incremented by 1 from K=2 until K=N each time, where K is an integer;whereby the interconnect patterns fractionated into N levels of contrast is extracted; a shift unit that inputs the interconnect pattern image extracted by said interconnect contrast extraction unit and that removes noise contained in a contour portion of said interconnect pattern by shifting said contour portion; and a picture image data outputting unit that outputs an interconnect pattern image, freed of noise of said contour portion by said shift unit, as picture image data. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with a computer program for processing a contrast picture image of a semiconductor element, wherein
the program allows a computer to execute a color grade number reducing processing of inputting a contrast image of said semiconductor element, obtained from a device for analysis, automatically reducing the number of color grades of said input contrast image based on the contrast distribution thereof and outputting a contrast image whose number of color grades has been reduced; -
an interconnect contrast extraction processing of receiving a contrast image, whose number of color grades has been reduced, classifying pixels contained in said contrast image, whose number of color grades has been reduced, in accordance with a preset contrast threshold value, and extracting an interconnect pattern image fractionated into a plurality of contrasts, wherein, with the number of said contrast threshold values being N, N being an integer not less than 2, said interconnect contrast extraction unit initially executes a processing of turning said contrast image, whose number of color grades has been reduced, into a bi-level image, using a preset first one of said contrast thresh values as reference, to extract an interconnect pattern of a first contrast; said interconnect contrast extraction unit executing a processing of turning, in continuation to extraction of the interconnect pattern of the first contrast, another contrast image, obtained after excluding the interconnect pattern already extracted in the color-grade-number-reduced contrast image, into a bi-level image, using a K'"'"'th contrast threshold value out of said N-number of the contrast threshold values as reference, to extract an interconnect pattern of the K'"'"'th contrast level;
the sequence of operations of turning into the bi-level images and interconnect pattern extraction being repeated as the value of K is incremented by 1 from K=2 until K=N each time, where K is an integer;whereby the interconnect patterns fractionated into N levels of contrast is extracted; a shift processing of receiving the interconnect pattern image extracted by said interconnect contrast extraction processing and removing noise of a contour portion of said interconnect included in said interconnect pattern image by shifting said contour portion; and a picture image data outputting processing of outputting an interconnect pattern image, freed of the noise in said contour portion by said shift processing, as picture image data. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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Specification