Method and system for manufacturing semiconductor devices, and method and system for inspecting semiconductor devices

• US 20010020194A1
• Filed: 03/21/2001
• Published: 09/06/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/1993
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Takagi, Yuji, Ono, Makoto, Doi, Hideaki
• Granted Patent: US 6,546,308 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/109
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/94 Investigating contamination, e.g. dust G01N21/85 takes precedence

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of inspecting a product, comprising extracting defects from the product, classifying the defects on the basis of information about the extracted defects representing the analogy of the defects, extracting the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification, and feeding back the feature data of the extracted defects for inspection; and to an inspection system comprising an inspecting means for extracting defects from the product, a defect classifying means for classifying the defects on the basis of information about the defects extracted by the inspecting means representing the analogy of the defects, and a feature data extracting means for extracting the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification provided by the defect classifying means, characterized in that the feature data of the defects extracted by the feature data extracting means is fed back to the inspecting means for inspecting the product.

The present invention relates also to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like, comprising extracting defects from the semiconductor device or the like, classifying the defects on the basis of information about the extracted defects representing the analogy of the defects, extracting the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification, and feeding back the feature data of the extracted defects to an apparatus for manufacturing the semiconductor device or the like.

Claims

1. A method of inspecting a product, comprising:

extracting defects in a product;

classifying the defects by category on the basis of analogy of the defects with information about the extracted defects;

extracting the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification; and

feeding back the feature data about the extracted defects.

21. A method of inspecting a product according to

claim 1

, wherein pattern information is used for representing the analogy of the defect.

22. A method of inspecting a product according to

claim 1

, wherein signal information about defect detection information is used for representing the analogy of the defect.

2. An inspection system comprising:

an inspection means for extracting defects in a product;

a defect classifying means for classifying the defects on the basis of the analogy of the extracted defect with information about the extracted defects;

a feature data extracting means for extracting the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification by the defect classifying means;

characterized in that the feature data of the defects extracted by the feature data extracting means is fed back to the inspecting means.

3. An inspection system comprising:

an automatic inspection unit that extracts defect in a product according to predetermined inspecting standards;

a defect classifying and feature extracting unit that receives information about the extracted defects from the automatic inspection unit, classifies the defects on the basis of the analogy of the defects with information about the defects, provides the result of defect classification and extracts the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification; and

a feature data converting unit that converts the feature date into inspecting standards to be used by the automatic inspection unit and feeds back the inspecting standards determined by converting the feature data to the automatic inspection unit to adjust the automatic inspection unit.

4. An inspection system according to

claim 3

further comprising an instructing means for giving instructions to specify the correct result of defect classification when the result of defect classification provided by the defect classifying and feature extracting unit is incorrect.

5. An inspection system according to

claim 3

, wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit has a means for visually indicating the result of defect classification to the operator to enable the operator to confirm the result of defect classification and the associated information, and to change the information or to add new information to the information.

6. An inspection system according to

claim 5

further comprising an information storage means for storing the information and information about each of the corresponding defects in the product.

7. An inspection system according to

claim 5

, characterized by extracting feature data of the defects from a plurality of pieces of information stored in the information storage means and information about the corresponding defects in the product, and sending the feature data to the feature data converting unit (3).

8. An inspection system according to

claim 3

, wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit has a means for visually indicating the result of defect classification to the operator to enable the operator to confirm the result of defect classification and the associated information, and to change the information or to add new information to the information.

9. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like, comprising:

extracting defects in a semiconductor device or the like;

classifying the defects on the basis of the analogy of the defects with information about the extracted defects;

extracting the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification; and

feeding back the feature data of the extracted defect to an apparatus for manufacturing the semiconductor device or the like.

25. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like according to

claim 9

, wherein the pattern information about the image of the detected defect is used for representing the attribute of the defect.

26. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like according to

claim 9

, wherein signal information about the detected defect is used for representing the attribute of the defect.

10. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like, comprising an inspection system that extracts defects in a semiconductor device or the like, classifies the defects by category on the basis of information about the extracted defects, and extracts the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification;

characterized in that the feature data of the extracted defects is fed back to a relevant manufacturing machine.

11. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like, comprising:

an automatic inspection unit that extracts defects in a semiconductor device or the like manufactured by a manufacturing machine, according to predetermined inspecting standards;

a defect classifying and feature extracting unit (2) that receives information about the defects extracted by the automatic inspection unit, classifies the defects by category on the basis of the analogy of the defects with information about the defects, provides the result of defect classification, and extracts the feature data of the defects on the basis of the result of defect classification;

a control means that converts the feature data into control parameters for controlling the condition of the manufacturing machine, and controls the manufacturing machine according to the parameters.

12. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like according to

claim 11

, wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit has a means capable of giving instructions to specify the correct result of defect classification when the result of defect classification provided by the defect classifying and feature extracting unit is incorrect.

13. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like according to

claim 11

, wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit (2) has a means capable of visually indicating the result of defect classification to the operator to enable the operator to confirm the result of defect classification and the associated information, and to change the information or to add new information to the information.

14. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like according to

claim 13

further comprising an information storage means for storing the information and information about each of the corresponding defects in the product.

15. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like according to

claim 13

, capable of extracting extracting feature data of the defects from the plurality of pieces of information stored in the information storage means and the information about the corresponding defects in the product, and constructed so as to send the feature data to the feature data converting unit.

16. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like according to

claim 11

, wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit (2) has a means for visually indicating the result of defect classification to the operator to enable the operator confirm the result of defect classification and the associated information, and to change the information or to add new information to the information.

17. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like according to

claim 11

, wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit has a means for indicating, when the defect cannot be classified into predetermined categories, information about defects and related information to the operator to that effect to enable the operator to assign a new or predetermined category, a new or predetermined designation or the like to the defect of an unknown category.

18. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like according to

claim 11

, wherein the information about the defect is image information about the detected defect and a region surrounding the detected defect.

19. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to

claim 11

, wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit sends the product inspected by the automatic inspection unit to a repairing unit according to the result of defect classification, and the product having the defect is subjected to a predetermined repairing process.

20. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like according to

claim 19

, wherein the repairing operation of the repairing unit can be controlled by the operator, information about the correct result of defect classification can be given to the repairing unit when the result of defect classification provided by the defect classifying and feature extracting unit is incorrect, and the information about the correct result of defect classification can be fed back to the defect classifying and feature extracting unit.

24. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like according to

claim 11

, wherein the defect classifying and feature extracting unit selects a manufacturing machine presumably causative of a defect in consideration of the result of defect classification and the attribute of the defect, and sends the feature data of the defect extracted by the defect classifying and feature extracting unit to the control means.

23. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like, characterized by attaching information relating to either the result of inspection or the result of measurement of a semiconductor device or the like or both the result of inspection and the result of measurement of the semiconductor device or the like to the inspected semiconductor device or the like.