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US 2014/0153815 A1Published application
Inspection tool and methodology for three dimensional voltage contrast inspection
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorOliver D. Patterson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for improved voltage contrast inspection is disclosed. In one embodiment the temporal response to voltage contrast is considered to find an optimal acquisition time. In another embodiment, multiple optimal acquisition times are identified. The identified acquisition times are used in voltage contrast inspection of semiconductor fabrication, and are well-suited to SOI technology.
Claims9
1-12. (canceled)
A system for performing voltage contrast inspection, comprising:
- an electron microscope, the electron microscope configured and disposed to acquire a plurality of voltage contrast images, each voltage contrast image corresponding to a different acquisition time;
- an image analysis module, the image analysis module comprising a central processing unit, and non-transistory storage containing instructions that when executed, computes a number of defect counts in each voltage contrast image, thereby establishing a number of defect counts corresponding to each acquisition time, and subsequently generates a voltage contrast inspection configuration.
A system for performing voltage contrast inspection, comprising:
- a scanning electron microscope, the scanning electron microscope configured and disposed to acquire a plurality of uncompressed voltage contrast images at multiple contiguous locations on multiple die within a wafer, each voltage contrast image corresponding to a different acquisition time;
- a frame memory, the frame memory configured and disposed to receive and store the plurality of uncompressed voltage contrast images from the scanning electron microscope;
- and
- an image analysis module, the image analysis module comprising a central processing unit, and non-transistory storage containing instructions that when executed, computes a number of defect counts in each voltage contrast image, thereby establishing a number of defect counts corresponding to each acquisition time, and subsequently generates a voltage contrast inspection configuration.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.