Back to results
US 7,002,674 B2Granted
Method and apparatus for inspecting defects
AssigneeSumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon Corporation
InventorsHirokazu Yokoyama, Hiroki Murakami
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeSumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon Corporation
InventorsHirokazu Yokoyama, Hiroki Murakami
Estimating the term…
Provided are a method and apparatus for inspecting a defect on a plane, such as a surface or a section, of an object to be inspected. The object is, for instance, a silicon wafer. A whole area of a plane of the object is first imaged by an optical system to gain image signals. Then, a particular region on the plane is positionally detected from the image signals. The particular region includes a blot and a defect and has a higher luminance than a remaining region on the plane. A blot is distinguishably detected from the particular region. A specified region on the plane is then subjected to a detailed inspection under a microscope. The region is set to avoid the blot even if the blot is on the region. The detailed inspection under the microscope is performed toward only the region with no blot.
A method of inspecting defects on a surface or section of an object to be inspected, comprising the steps of:
The method according to claim 3, wherein the first inspection performing step includes the step of driving a one-dimensional CCD camera of which the field of view is set to agree with a width of the object to cause a relative movement covering a distance corresponding to a length of the object so as to image a whole area of the surface of the object.
An apparatus for inspecting defects on a surface or section of an object to be inspected, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.