Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080304055 | SURFACE DEFECT INSPECTION METHOD AND APPARATUS - A surface defect inspection apparatus is structured to add detection signals of multi-directionally detected scattered lights to detect a tiny defect and to individually process the respective detection signals to prevent an error failing to detect an anisotropic defect. | 12-11-2008 |
20090195775 | Defect Inspection Method - A method for inspecting a defect of a surface of a sample includes irradiating a laser beam on the sample surface a plurality of times so that at least part of an illumination field of the laser beam on the sample surface illuminates a first area of the sample surface each of the plurality of times, detecting a plurality of scattered light rays from the first area caused by the plurality of times of irradiations, correcting errors of detection timings for the plurality of detected scattered light rays, correcting at least one of adding and averaging the plurality of scattered light rays, determining a defect on the sample surface based on a calculation result in accordance with the at least one of the adding and averaging. | 08-06-2009 |
20090257058 | Method and Its Apparatus for Inspecting Defects - A defect inspection apparatus is capable of inspecting an extremely small defect present on the top and edge surfaces of a sample such as a semiconductor substrate or a thin film substrate with high sensitivity and at high speed. The defect inspection apparatus has an illumination optical system, a plurality of detection optical units and a signal processor. One or more of the detection optical units receives either light diffracted from an edge portion of the sample or light diffracted from an edge grip holding the sample. The one or more of the detection optical units shields the diffracted light received by the detection optical unit based on a signal obtained by monitoring an intensity of the diffracted light received by the detection optical unit in order to inspect a sample portion located near the edge portion and a sample portion located near the edge grip. | 10-15-2009 |
20090279081 | DEFECT INSPECTION APPARATUS - A defect inspection apparatus for inspecting a surface of a sample includes a stage for holding the sample, an illumination optical system that irradiates a laser beam to form a linear illuminated area on the surface of the sample, a detection optical system, and a signal processing system. The detection optical system includes a detector device having a plurality of pixels for detecting light scattered from the linear illuminated area of the surface of the sample, and that outputs in parallel a plurality of detection signals having mutually different sensitivities acquired from the plurality of pixels of the detector device. The signal processing system selects an unsaturated detection signal from the plurality of detection signals and detects a defect in accordance with the selected detection signal. | 11-12-2009 |
20100060895 | Inspection Apparatus - Scattered light that originates from the surface roughness of silicon or other metallic films is distributed more strongly at positions closer to the starting position of the scattering. Of all scattered-light detection signals obtained during multi-directional detection, therefore, only a detection signal of forward scattered light can be used to detect micro-defects, and only a detection signal of backward scattered light can be used to detect the surface roughness very accurately. | 03-11-2010 |
20100149528 | Defect Inspection Method - A method for inspecting a defect of a surface of a sample, includes irradiating a laser beam on the sample surface a plurality of times so that at least part of an illumination field of the laser beam on the sample surface illuminates a first area of the sample surface each of the plurality of times, detecting a plurality of scattered light rays from the first area caused by the plurality of times of irradiation, correcting errors of detection timings for the plurality of scattered light rays detected in the detection step, and determining a defect on the sample surface based on the plurality of scattered light rays in accordance with the correcting errors of detection timings. | 06-17-2010 |
20100225904 | Defect Inspection Tool For Sample Surface And Defect Detection Method Therefor - A defect inspection tool includes an illumination optical system for irradiating light to a surface of an object, and a detection optical system for detecting light scattered from the surface of the object which is irradiated. The detection optical system include an analyzer, a photoelectric converting device for receiving the scattering light passed through the analyzer, a member for saving a database prepared through an actual measurement or a calculation in correspondence with a condition of the illumination optical system, that of the detection optical system, a kind of an object to be inspected, and a rotation angle of the analyzer, and a member for adjusting an angle of the analyzer by selecting an angle of the analyzer from a database saved in the member for saving on a basis of an inspection recipe after receiving the inspection recipe to the defect inspection tool. | 09-09-2010 |
20100265494 | SURFACE DEFECT INSPECTION METHOD AND APPARATUS - A surface defect inspection apparatus and method for irradiating a beam multiple times to a same region on a surface of an inspection sample, detecting each scattered light from the same region by detection optical systems individually to produce plural signals, and wherein irradiating the beam includes performing a line illumination of the beam on a line illumination region of the sample surface. The line illumination region is moved in a longitudinal direction at a pitch shorter than a length of the line illumination region in the longitudinal direction. | 10-21-2010 |
20110080578 | Method and Its Apparatus For Inspecting Defects - A defect inspection apparatus is capable of inspecting an extremely small defect present on the top and edge surfaces of a sample such as a semiconductor substrate or a thin film substrate with high sensitivity and at high speed. The defect inspection apparatus has an illumination optical system, a plurality of detection optical units and a signal processor. One or more of the detection optical units receives either light diffracted from an edge portion of the sample or light diffracted from an edge grip holding the sample. The one or more of the detection optical units shields the diffracted light received by the detection optical unit based on a signal obtained by monitoring an intensity of the diffracted light received by the detection optical unit in order to inspect a sample portion located near the edge portion and a sample portion located near the edge grip. | 04-07-2011 |
20110128534 | Defect Inspection Method - A method and apparatus for inspecting a defect of a surface of a sample in which a laser beam is irradiated on a sample surface so that at least a part of an illumination field of the laser beam illuminates a first area of the sample surface, a plurality of scattered light rays from the first area caused by the irradiation in the irradiating is detected, errors of inclination of an illumination apparatus and a sensor for the plurality of scattered light rays detected are corrected, the plurality of scattered light rays corrected is at least one of added and averaged, a defect on the sample surface based on the plurality of scattered light rays in accordance with the correcting of errors of inclination of the illumination apparatus and the sensor is determined. | 06-02-2011 |
20110211191 | Method And Its Apparatus For Inspecting Defects - A defect inspection apparatus is capable of inspecting an extremely small defect present on the top and edge surfaces of a sample such as a semiconductor substrate or a thin film substrate with high sensitivity and at high speed. The defect inspection apparatus has an illumination optical system, a plurality of detection optical units and a signal processor. One or more of the detection optical units receives either light diffracted from an edge portion of the sample or light diffracted from an edge grip holding the sample. The one or more of the detection optical units shields the diffracted light received by the detection optical unit based on a signal obtained by monitoring an intensity of the diffracted light received by the detection optical unit in order to inspect a sample portion located near the edge portion and a sample portion located near the edge grip. | 09-01-2011 |
20110242524 | FLAT SURFACE INSPECTION APPARATUS - An object is to provide a flat surface inspection apparatus that can prevent sliders from being damaged and detect micro defects. A flat surface inspection apparatus includes: a measured subject; a stage that supports the measured subject; a spindle that rotates the stage; a first part having light sources applying light beam onto the measured subject, a scattered-light-detecting section, a signal processing section that converts the scattered light into information about a first defect, and a first memory section that stores therein the information about the first defect; and a second part having sliders mounted with a contact sensor that detects a second defect smaller than the first defect, a loading/unloading mechanism that flies the slider over the measured subject, a slider control section that controls the loading/unloading mechanism based on the information about the first defects and second defects. | 10-06-2011 |
20120008138 | SURFACE DEFECT INSPECTION METHOD AND APPARATUS - A surface defect inspection apparatus and method for irradiating a beam multiple times to a same region on a surface of an inspection sample, detecting each scattered light from the same region by detection optical systems individually to produce plural signals, and wherein irradiating the beam includes performing a line illumination of the beam on a line illumination region of the sample surface. The line illumination region is moved in a longitudinal direction at a pitch shorter than a length of the line illumination region in the longitudinal direction. | 01-12-2012 |
20120019835 | DEFECT INSPECTING METHOD AND DEFECT INSPECTING APPARATUS - Provided are a defect inspecting method and a defect inspecting apparatus, wherein defect detecting sensitivity is improved and also haze measurement is performed using polarization detection, while suppressing damages to samples. The defect inspecting apparatus is provided with a light source which oscillates to a sample a laser beam having a wavelength band wherein a small energy is absorbed, and two independent detecting optical systems, i.e., a defect detecting optical system which detects defect scattered light generated by a defect, by radiating the laser beams oscillated by the light source, and a haze detecting optical system which detects roughness scattered light generated due to roughness of the wafer surface. Polarization detection is independently performed with respect to the scattered light detected by the two detecting optical systems, and based on the two different detection signals, defect determination and haze measurement are performed. | 01-26-2012 |
20120092656 | Defect Inspection Method and Defect Inspection Apparatus - Provided is a method for inspecting a defect on a surface of a sample, the method including the steps of comparing a haze signal distribution with a predetermined light intensity distribution to calculate pixel shift amounts of detection signals; and adding up shift corrected detection signals to detect a defect. | 04-19-2012 |
20120133926 | Defect Inspection Method - A method and apparatus of inspecting a defect of a surface of a sample in which a laser beam is irradiated on a sample surface so that at least a part of an illumination field of the laser beam illuminates a first area of the sample surface, a plurality of scattered light rays from the first area caused by the irradiation is detected with a plurality of detectors, detection errors of inclination of an illumination apparatus and a sensor for the plurality of scattered light rays detected by the plurality of detectors are corrected, at least one of adding and averaging the corrected plurality of scattered light rays, and a defect on the sample surface is determined based on the plurality of scattered light rays in accordance with the correction of errors of inclination of the illumination apparatus and the sensor. | 05-31-2012 |
20120133928 | DEFECT INSPECTION DEVICE AND INSPECTION METHOD - A defect inspection method wherein illumination light having a substantially uniform illumination intensity distribution in a certain direction on the surface of a specimen is radiated onto the surface of the specimen; wherein multiple components of those scattered light beams from the surface of the specimen which are emitted mutually different directions are detected, thereby obtaining corresponding multiple scattered light beam detection signals; wherein the multiple scattered light beam detection signals is subjected to processing, thereby determining the presence of defects; wherein the corresponding multiple scattered light detecting signals is processed with respect to all of the spots determined to be defective by the processing, thereby determining the sizes of defects; and wherein the defect locations on the specimen and the defect sizes are displayed with respect to all of the spots determined to be defective by the processing. | 05-31-2012 |
20120140211 | Inspection Apparatus - An inspection apparatus and method for detecting defects and haze on a surface of a sample includes illumination optics which emit light to illuminate an inspection region on the surface of the sample from an oblique direction relative to the inspection region, first detection optics which detect first scattered light from the inspection region and having a beam analyzer through an optical path, second detection optics which detect second scattered light from the inspection region, the second scattered light being scattered from a direction different than a direction of the first scattered light, and a signal-processing unit which treats different processings for a first signal of the detected first scattered light and for a second signal of the detected second scattered light and detecting defects and haze on the surface of the sample on the basis of at least one of the first signal and the second signal. | 06-07-2012 |
20120162665 | Inspecting Method and Inspecting Apparatus for Substrate Surface - An inspecting method and apparatus for inspecting a substrate surface includes application of a light to the substrate surface, detection of scattered light or reflected light from the substrate surface due to the applied light at a plurality of positions to obtain a plurality of electrical signals, extraction of a signal in a mutually different frequency band from each of the plurality of electrical signals, and calculation of a value regarding a state of film of the substrate through an arithmetical operation process of a plurality of extracted signals in the frequency bands. | 06-28-2012 |
20120194807 | FLAW INSPECTING METHOD AND DEVICE THEREFOR - In order to maximize the effect of signal addition during inspection of foreign substances in wafers, a device structure including line sensors arranged in plural directions is effective. Low-angle detection optical systems that detect light beams in plural azimuth directions, the light beams being scattered in low angle directions among those scattered from a linear area on a sample illuminated by illuminating means, each include a combination of a first imaging lens group ( | 08-02-2012 |
20120320373 | Inspection Apparatus - An inspection method and apparatus for detecting defects or haze of a sample, includes illuminating light to the sample from an oblique direction relative to a surface of the sample with an illuminator, detecting first scattered light at a forward position relative to an illuminating direction from the sample with a first detector, detecting sec and scattered light at a sideward or backward position relative to the illuminating direction from the sample with a second detection, and processing a first signal of the first scattered light and a second signal of the second scattered light with different weighting for the first signal and for the second signal with a processor. | 12-20-2012 |
20130003052 | DEFECT INSPECTION DEVICE AND DEFECT INSPECTION METHOD - A defect inspection device has: an illumination optical system which irradiates a predetermined region of an inspection target with illumination light; a detection optical system which has a detector provided with a plurality of pixels by which scattered light from the predetermined region of the inspection target due to illumination light from the illumination optical system can be detected; and a signal processing portion which is provided with a correction portion which corrects pixel displacement caused by change in a direction perpendicular to a surface of the inspection target with respect to a detection signal based on the scattered light detected by the detector of the detection optical system, and a defect determination portion which determines a defect on the surface of the inspection target based on the detection signal corrected by the correction portion. | 01-03-2013 |
20130107247 | Inspecting Method and Inspecting Apparatus For Substrate Surface | 05-02-2013 |
20130114078 | DEFECT INSPECTION METHOD AND DEVICE THEREFOR - Disclosed is a defect inspection method which makes it possible to scan the entire surface of a sample and detect minute defects without causing thermal damage to the sample. A defect inspection method in which a pulse laser emitted from a light source is subjected to pulse division and irradiated on the surface of a sample which moves in one direction while the divided-pulse pulse laser is rotated, reflection light from the sample irradiated by the divided-pulse pulse laser is detected, the signal of the detected reflection light is processed to detect defects on the sample, and information regarding a detected defect is output to a display screen, wherein the barycentric position of the light intensity of the divided-pulse pulse laser is monitored and adjusted. | 05-09-2013 |
20130141715 | FAULT INSPECTION DEVICE AND FAULT INSPECTION METHOD - Proposed is a defect inspection method whereby: illuminating light having a substantially uniform illumination intensity distribution in one direction of a sample surface irradiated on the sample surface; multiple scattered light components, which are output in multiple independent directions, are detected among the scattered light from the sample surface and multiple corresponding scattered light detection signals are obtained; at least one of the multiple scattered light detection signals is processed and the presence of defects is determined; at least one of the multiple scattered light detection signals that correspond to each of the points determined by the processing as a defect is processed and the dimensions of the defect are determined; and the position and dimensions of the defect on the sample surface, at each of the points determined as a defect, are displayed. | 06-06-2013 |
20130155400 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR INSPECTING FOR DEFECTS - A defect inspecting method is provided which comprises a pre-scan defect inspecting process including a pre-scan irradiating step for casting irradiation light onto the surface of a sample, a pre-scan detecting step for detecting the scattered lights, and a pre-scan defect information collecting step for obtaining information on preselected defects present on the sample surface on the basis of the scattered lights; a near-field defect inspecting process including a near-field irradiating step in which the distance between the sample surface and a near-field head is adjusted so that the sample surface is irradiated, a near-field detecting step for detecting near-field light response, and a near-field defect information collecting step for obtaining information on the preselected defects on the basis of the near-field light response; and a merging process for inspecting defects present on the sample surface by merging the pieces of information on the preselected defects. | 06-20-2013 |
20140009755 | DEFECT INSPECTION METHOD AND DEVICE USING SAME - In order to enable inspections to be conducted at a sampling rate higher than the pulse oscillation frequency of a pulsed laser beam emitted from a laser light source, without damaging samples, a defect inspection method is disclosed, wherein: a single pulse of a pulsed laser beam emitted from the laser light source is split into a plurality of pulses; a sample is irradiated with this pulse-split pulsed laser beam; scattered light produced by the sample due to the irradiation is focused and detected; and defects on the sample are detected by using information obtained by focusing and detecting the scattered light from the sample. Said defect inspection method is configured such that the splitting a single pulse of the pulsed laser beam into a plurality of pulses is controlled in such a manner that the peak values of the split pulses are substantially uniform. | 01-09-2014 |
20140125980 | Defect Inspecting Method and Defect Inspecting Apparatus - A defect inspecting method and apparatus for inspecting a surface state including a defect on a wafer surface, in which a polarization state of a laser beam irradiated onto the wafer surface is connected into a specified polarization state, the converted laser beam having the specified polarization state is inserted onto the wafer surface, and a scattering light occurring from an irradiated region where the laser beam having the specified polarization state is irradiated, is separated into a first scattering light occurring due to a defect on the wafer and a second scattering light occurring due to a surface roughness on the wafer. An optical element for optical path division separates the first and second scattering lights approximately at the same time. | 05-08-2014 |
20140176943 | SURFACE DEFECT INSPECTION METHOD AND APPARATUS - A surface defect inspection apparatus and method is provided which illuminates a plurality of beams set to different intensity values to a sample. Scattered light from the plurality of beams is detected and processed to analyze the surface defects. | 06-26-2014 |
20140192353 | INSPECTION APPARATUS - An inspection method and apparatus for detecting defects or haze of a sample, includes illuminating light to the sample from an oblique direction relative to a surface of the sample with an illuminator, detecting first scattered light at a forward position relative to an illuminating direction from the sample with a first detector, detecting second scattered light at a sideward or backward position relative to the illuminating direction from the sample with a second detection, and processing a first signal of the first scattered light and a second signal of the second scattered light with different weighting for the first signal and for the second signal with a processor. | 07-10-2014 |