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US 2011/0255082 A1Published application
Optical inspection method and optical inspection apparatus
AssigneeHitachi High-Technologies Corporation
InventorShigeru MATSUI
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AssigneeHitachi High-Technologies Corporation
InventorShigeru MATSUI
Estimating the term…
In the conventional contaminant particle/defect inspection method, if the illuminance of the illumination beam is held at not more than a predetermined upper limit value not to give thermal damage to the sample, the detection sensitivity and the inspection speed being in the tradeoff relation with each other, it is very difficult to improve one of the detection sensitivity and the inspection speed without sacrificing the other or improve both at the same time. The invention provides an improved optical inspection method and an improved optical inspection apparatus, in which a pulse laser is used as a light source, and a laser beam flux is split into a plurality of laser beam fluxes which are given different time delay to form a plurality of illumination spots. The scattered light signal from each illumination spot is isolated and detected by using a light emission start timing signal for each illumination spot.
An optical inspection method for detecting a contaminant particle/defect existing on a surface or in an internal part near a surface of a sample to be inspected, using a sample stage for moving the sample in accordance with a predetermined pattern, an illumination unit for radiating a light from a light source on the surface of the sample and a light detection unit for detecting the light generated by the radiation of the illumination beam on the sample,
2-38. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.