US 2009/0213364 A1Published application

Surface inspection method and inspection device using the same

AssigneeHitachi High-Technologies Corporation

InventorShigeru Matsui

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Abstract

If an illuminance of a measurement spot is limited in order to prevent heat damage on an article to be inspected, since detection sensitivity and a detection speed are in a relation of trade-off, it is difficult to improve one of them without sacrificing the other or to improve both of them. Also, there is a problem that the detection sensitivity is lowered on an outer circumference portion than on an inner circumference portion of the article to be inspected. A plurality of measurement units comprising an illumination optics, a measurement spot, a collection optics, and a light detection optics are provided, inspection results obtained from the plurality of measurement spots are integrated, and light-amount distribution to each measurement spot is controlled according to a scan radial position.

Claims27

Dependent claims

A surface inspection method comprising:

a stage for moving an article to be inspected with primary scan of rotational movement and secondary scan of translational movement, on which an article to be inspected is mounted;
an illumination optics for forming an illumination spot by irradiating an illumination light flux from a light source to a predetermined position on the surface of the article to be inspected mounted on the stage for moving an article to be inspected;
a collection optics for collecting light scattered, diffracted or reflected from the illumination spot;
and
a light detection optics for detecting the scattered light, diffracted light or reflected light collected by the collection optics and converting it to an electric signal, wherein a plurality of measurement units including the illumination optics, the collection optics, and the light detection optics are arranged substantially along the secondary scan direction of the stage for moving an article to be inspected;
and
a step is provided in which the stage for moving an article to be inspected moves/scans the article to be inspected at linear velocities different between an inner circumference portion of the article to be inspected and an outer circumference portion of the article to be inspected by combination of the primary scan and the secondary scan, and on the basis of information from the plurality of measurement units, a contaminant particle or a defect present on the surface or in the vicinity of the surface of the article to be inspected is detected.

4 more elements

A surface inspection apparatus comprising:

a stage for moving an article to be inspected with primary scan of rotational movement and secondary scan of translational movement, on which an article to be inspected is mounted;
an illumination light-flux dividing optics for dividing a light flux emitted from a light source into plural;
an illumination optics for forming an illumination spot by irradiating one of the illumination light fluxes divided by the illumination light-flux dividing optics to a predetermined position on the surface of the article to be inspected;
a collection optics for collecting light scattered, diffracted or reflected from the illumination spot;
a light detection optics for detecting the scattered light, diffracted light or reflected light collected by the collection optics and converting it to an electric signal;
and
a plurality of measurement units including the illumination optics, the collection optics and the light detection optics, wherein
the plurality of measurement units are arranged substantially along the secondary scan direction of the stage for moving an article to be inspected.

5 more elements

A surface inspection apparatus comprising:

a stage for moving an article to be inspected with primary scan of rotational movement and secondary scan of translational movement, on which an article to be inspected is mounted;
an illumination light-flux dividing optics for dividing a light flux emitted from a light source into plural;
an illumination optics for forming an illumination spot by irradiating one of the illumination light fluxes divided by the illumination light-flux dividing optics into plural to a predetermined position on the surface of the article to be inspected;
a collection optics for collecting light scattered, diffracted or reflected from the illumination spot;
a light detection optics for detecting the scattered light, diffracted light or reflected light collected by the collection optics and converting it to an electric signal;
and
two measurement units including the illumination optics, the collection optics, and the light detection optics, in which
two units of the stage for moving an article to be inspected or two units of primary scan mechanism are mounted on a common secondary scan mechanism so that two articles to be inspected can be inspected substantially at the same time;
and
by combination of the primary scan and secondary scan, while the article to be inspected is moved/scanned at linear velocities different between its inner circumference portion and an outer circumference portion, a contaminant particle or a defect present on the surface of the article to be inspected or inside the vicinity of the surface is detected by detecting scattered light, diffracted light or reflected light from the illumination spot formed by irradiation onto a predetermined position on the surface of the article to be inspected, wherein
the two measurement units are made to correspond to the two articles to be inspected mounted on the primary scan mechanism of the two units of the stage for moving an article to be inspected or two primary scan mechanisms having the common secondary scan mechanism.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.