US 8,542,354 B2 · Inspection apparatus

Abstract

The present invention provides an inspection apparatus having a high throughput and high sensitivity with respect to a number of various manufacturing processes and defects of interest in inspection of a specimen such as a semiconductor wafer on which a pattern is formed. The apparatus illuminates with light the specimen having the pattern formed thereon, forms an image of the specimen on an image sensor through a reflective optics, and determines the existence/nonexistence of a defect. The reflective optics has a conjugate pair of Fourier transform optics. An aberration of the reflective optics is corrected off-axis. The reflective optics has a field of view in non-straight-line slit form on the specimen surface. Also, the optics is of a reflection type, includes a conjugate pair of Fourier transform optics and has a field of view in non-straight-line slit form. An optimum wavelength band is selected according to the specimen (FIG. 1).

Claims32

Dependent claims

An inspection apparatus which determines an existence and a non-existence of a defect, the apparatus comprising:

an illumination system which illuminates a specimen with light;
and
a Fourier transform system comprising:
a first Fourier transform unit which includes first reflective elements;
a second Fourier transform unit which includes second reflective elements;
and
an image sensor which acquires an image by using reflected light from the second reflective elements, wherein:
the first Fourier transform unit and the second Fourier transform unit are conjugate,
the first Fourier transform unit includes an objective element which reflects light from the specimen,
an aberration of the Fourier transform system is corrected off-axis, and
a field of view of the Fourier transform system on a surface of the specimen is in non-straight-line slit form.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Inspection apparatus

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Inspection apparatus

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims32