Foreign substance inspecting method and apparatus, which detect a height of a foreign substance, and an exposure apparatus using this inspecting apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsHideki Ina, Koichi Sentoku, Takahiro Matsumoto
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Abstract
A foreign substance inspecting method includes the steps of detecting a height of a foreign substance attaching to a periphery of a wafer by irradiating a light beam from a light source to the wafer, thereby detecting the presence/absence of a foreign substance with not less than a predetermined height. The predetermined height is set to be substantially equal to a gap between the wafer and a mask at a wafer exposure.
Claims13
A foreign substance inspecting method comprising the step of:
- detecting a height of a foreign substance attaching to a periphery of a wafer by irradiating a light beam from a light source to the wafer, thereby detecting the presence/absence of a foreign substance with not less than a predetermined height,
- wherein the predetermined height is set to be substantially equal to a gap between the wafer and a mask at a wafer exposure.
A foreign substance inspecting method that is applied to an exposure apparatus, which exposes a mask and wafer separated from each other at a predetermined distance, said method comprising the step of:
- detecting a height of a foreign substance attaching to the wafer by irradiating a light beam from a light source to the wafer, thereby detecting the presence/absence of a foreign substance with not less than a gap between the wafer and a mask at a wafer exposure.
A foreign substance inspecting method that is applied to an exposure apparatus, which exposes a mask and a wafer separated from each other at a predetermined distance, said method comprising the step of:
- detecting a size and height of a foreign substance attaching to the wafer by irradiating a light beam from a light source to the wafer, thereby detecting the presence/absence of a foreign substance with not less than a gap between the wafer and a mask at a wafer exposure.
A foreign substance inspecting apparatus for inspecting a foreign substance attaching to a wafer, said apparatus comprising:
- an irradiation unit for irradiating a periphery of the wafer with a light beam in a direction substantially tangent to an outer circumference of the wafer while rotating the wafer;
- and
- a detection unit for detecting the presence/absence of a foreign substance with not less than a predetermined height on the basis of the irradiating light beam,
- wherein the predetermined height is set to be substantially equal to a gap between the wafer and a mask at a wafer exposure.
An exposure apparatus for exposing a mask and a wafer separated from each other at a predetermined distance, said exposure apparatus comprising:
- a foreign substance inspecting apparatus for inspecting a foreign substance attaching to a wafer, said inspecting apparatus having (i) an irradiation unit for irradiating a periphery of the wafer with a light beam in a direction substantially tangent to an outer circumference of the wafer while rotating the wafer, and (ii) a detection unit for detecting the presence/absence of a foreign substance with not less than a predetermined height on the basis of the irradiating light beam,
- wherein the predetermined height is set to be substantially equal to a gap between the wafer and a mask at a wafer exposure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.