Method and apparatus for inspecting defects
AssigneeHitachi High-Technologies Corporation
InventorsYukihiro SHIBATA, Yasuhiro YOSHITAKE
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Abstract
To provide a defect inspection apparatus for inspecting defects of a specimen without lowering resolution of a lens, without depending on a polarization characteristic of a defect scattered light, and with high detection sensitivity that is realized by the following. A detection optical path is branched by at least one of spectral splitting and polarization splitting, a spatial filter in the form of a two-dimensional array is disposed after the branch, and only diffracted light is shielded by the spatial filter in the form of a two-dimensional array.
Claims16
A method that detects defects of a specimen, comprising the steps:
- illuminating the specimen surface with a plurality of illumination lights each having a different wavelength;
- detecting a plurality of images by detecting a plurality of scattered lights each having a different wavelength condition or polarization condition from a predetermined region of the specimen surface illuminated by the illumination lights;
- image-processing each of the plurality of images that were detected,
- wherein the image-processing step provides a first processing step and a second processing step:
- the first processing step calculates a plurality of feature quantities by processing each of the plurality of images and calculates defect candidates to the each of the plurality of images by processing the each of the plurality of feature quantities, and
- the second processing step sorts kinds of the defect candidates calculated using the plurality of images in the first processing step when at least one of the defect candidates is calculated from the plurality of images in the first processing step.
An apparatus that detects defects of a specimen, comprising:
- an illuminating section that illuminates the specimen surface with a plurality of illumination lights each having a different wavelength;
- a detecting section that detects a plurality of images by detecting a plurality of scattered lights each having a different wavelength condition or polarization condition from a predetermined region of the specimen surface illuminated by the illumination lights;
- an image-processing section that processes each of the plurality of images that were detected,
- wherein the image-processing section provides a first processing section and a second processing section:
- the first processing section calculates a plurality of feature quantities by processing each of the plurality of images and calculates defect candidates to the each of the plurality of images by processing the each of the plurality of feature quantities, and
- the second processing section sorts kinds of the defect candidates calculated using the plurality of images in the first processing step when at least one of the defect candidates is calculated from the plurality of images in the first processing section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.