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US 7,070,889 B2Granted
Method for repairing a photomask, method for inspecting a photomask, method for manufacturing a photomask, and method for manufacturing a semiconductor device
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorsKatsuki Ohashi, Hiromu Inoue, Akira Ono, Hiroyuki Ikeda
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Abstract
A method for inspecting a photomask, comprising generating a laser beam, changing a phase of the laser beam to smooth the brightness distribution of the laser beam, applying the smoothed laser beam to the photomask, acquiring an image of the photomask using a sensor while the laser beam and the photomask are relatively moved, examining the image of the photomask for a defect of the mask-pattern of the photomask.
Claims17
A method for manufacturing a photomask comprising:
- forming a mask pattern onto the photomask;
- generating a laser beam;
- changing a phase of the laser beam to smooth the brightness distribution of the laser beam, and applying the smoothed laser beam to the photomask;
- acquiring an image of the photomask with a sensor, and outputting an image signal from the sensor in accordance with relative movement of the laser beam and the photomask;
- acquiring a defect of the mask pattern of the photomask on the basis of the image signal outputted from the sensor;
- and
- when the defect of the mask pattern is detected, specifying the position of the defect of the mask pattern, and repairing the defect of the mask pattern.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.