Detection of defects in patterned substrates
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsChristopher G. Talbot, Chiwoei Wayne Lo
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of detecting defects in a patterned substrate includes positioning a charged-particle-beam optical column relative to a patterned substrate, the charged-particle-beam optical column having a field of view (FOV) with a substantially uniform resolution over the FOV; operating the charged-particle-beam optical column to acquire images of a region of the patterned substrate lying within the FOV by scanning the charged-particle beam over the patterned substrate; and comparing the acquired images to a reference to identify defects in the patterned substrate.
Claims2
A method of detecting defects in a patterned semiconductor wafer, comprising:
- positioning a charged-particle-beam column relative to the semiconductor wafer, the charged particle beam column having a field of view (FOV) with a substantially uniform resolution over the FOV;
- operating the charged-particle-beam column to acquire a plurality of images of a region of the semiconductor wafer lying within the FOV by scanning the charged-particle-beam over only a portion of the FOV, whereby the region is no more than three adjacent die defined on the patterned semiconductor wafer;
- and
- comparing the acquired images to a reference thereby to identify defects in the scanned region of the semiconductor wafer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.