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US 8,914,754 B2Granted
Database-driven cell-to-cell reticle inspection
AssigneeKLA-Tencor Corporation
InventorsCarl Hess, John D. Miller, Shi Rui-Fang, Chun Guan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A semiconductor inspection apparatus identifies regions of a reticle or semiconductor wafer appropriate for cell-to-cell inspection by analyzing a semiconductor design database. Appropriate regions can be identified in a region map for use by offline inspection tools.
Claims13
A inspection apparatus comprising:
- a processor;
- memory connected to the processor;
- an imaging device connected to the processor, configured for cell-to-cell inspection of at least one of a reticle or a semiconductor wafer;
- and
- computer executable program code configured to execute on the processor,
- wherein the computer executable program code is configured to:
- perform cell-to-cell inspection of regions of the reticle or semiconductor wafer identified as appropriate for cell-to-cell inspection based on a semiconductor design database;
- and
- prohibit cell-to-cell inspection of regions of the reticle or semiconductor wafer identified as inappropriate for cell-to-cell inspection based on the semiconductor design database, regions inappropriate for cell-to-cell inspection including substantially similar elements wherein one of said substantially similar elements is altered by optical proximity correction;
- wherein the executable program code is further configured to analyze the semiconductor design database to identify regions of the reticle or semiconductor wafer appropriate for cell-to-cell inspection;
- and
- wherein analyzing the semiconductor design database comprises at east at least one of autocorrelation analysis or hierarchy analysis.
9 more elements
A computer apparatus comprising:
- a processor;
- memory connected to the processor, configured to store a region map of a reticle or semiconductor wafer;
- and
- computer executable program code,
- wherein the computer executable program code is configured to:
- read a semiconductor design database;
- analyze the semiconductor design database to identify regions appropriate for cell-to-cell inspection;
- produce a region map of valid cell-to-cell inspection regions based on the analysis of the semiconductor design database;
- and
- prohibit cell-to-cell inspection of regions of the reticle or semiconductor wafer identified as inappropriate for cell-to-cell inspection based on the semiconductor design database, regions inappropriate for cell-to-cell inspection including substantially similar elements wherein one of said substantially similar elements is altered by optical proximity correction;
- wherein the computer executable program code is further configured to render the semiconductor design database;
- and
- wherein the computer executable program code is further configured to perform an autocorrelation analysis.
10 more elements
A method of inspection comprising:
- analyzing, via a computer processor, a semiconductor design database to identify regions appropriate for cell-to-cell inspection;
- producing, via a computer processor, a region map of regions appropriate for cell-to-cell inspection based on the analysis of the semiconductor design database;
- and
- prohibiting cell-to-cell inspection of regions of the reticle or semiconductor wafer identified as inappropriate for cell-to-cell inspection based on the semiconductor design database, regions inappropriate for cell-to-cell inspection including substantially similar elements wherein one of said substantially similar elements is altered by optical proximity correction;
- and
- wherein analyzing the semiconductor design database further comprises one of an autocorrelation analysis or a hierarchy analysis.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.