Method for detecting particles on the surface of an object, wafer, and mask blank

Abstract

A method for detecting deposited particles (P) on a surface (11) of an object (3, 14) includes: irradiating a partial region of the surface (11) of the object (3, 14) with measurement radiation; detecting measurement radiation scattered on the irradiated partial region, and detecting particles in the partial region of the surface of the object (3, 14) based on the detected measurement radiation. In the steps of irradiating and detecting, the surface (11) of the object (3, 14) has an anti-reflective coating (13) and/or a surface structure (15) for reducing the reflectivity of the surface (11) for the measurement radiation (9), wherein the particle detection limit is lowered due to the anti-reflective coating (13) and/or the surface structure (15). Also disclosed are a wafer (3) and a mask blank for carrying out the method.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.