Defect detection method and defect detection device and defect observation device provided with same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10267745-B2
Application number	US-201715673582-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 10, 2017
Priority date	Nov 18, 2009
Publication date	Apr 23, 2019
Grant date	Apr 23, 2019

Abstract

The disclosed device, which, using an electron microscope or the like, minutely observes defects detected by an optical appearance-inspecting device or an optical defect-inspecting device, can reliably insert a defect to be observed into the field of an electron microscope or the like, and can be a device of smaller scale. The electron microscope, which observes defects detected by an optical appearance-inspecting device or an optical defect-inspecting device, has a configuration incorporating an optimal microscope that re-detects defects, and a spatial filter and a distribution polarization element are inserted at the pupil plane when making dark-field observations using this optical microscope. The electron microscope, which observes defects detected by an optical appearance-inspecting device or an optical defect-inspecting device, has a configuration incorporating an optimal microscope that re-detects defects, and a distribution filter is inserted at the pupil plane when making dark-field observations using this optical microscope.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An inspection device, comprising:
an illumination optical system configured to emit light onto a surface of a sample;
a detection optical system configured to detect scattered light from the sample caused by the illumination optical system;
a first filter disposed near a pupil plane of the detection optical system, the first filter having a plurality of regions of different transmission characteristics regarding the scattered light;
a second filter disposed near the pupil plane of the detection optical system, the second filter having a plurality of regions with different polarization characteristics regarding the scattered light; and
a sensor configured to detect scattered light filtered by the first and second filters.

2. The inspection device of claim 1 , wherein the first and second filters comprise characteristics wherein a ratio between an amount of scattered light caused by a foreign matter or a defect present on the sample and an amount of scattered light from the surface of the sample is greater than a prescribed threshold value.

3. The inspection device of claim 2 , wherein the first and second filters comprise characteristics wherein a component of light with a ratio between an amount of scattered light caused by a foreign matter or a defect present on the sample and an amount of scattered light from the surface of the sample being less than a prescribed threshold value is blocked.

4. The inspection device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality regions with different polarization characteristics of the second filter have different polarization axes.

5. An inspection device, comprising:
an illumination optical system configured to emit light onto a surface of a sample;
a detection optical system configured to detect scattered light from the sample caused by the illumination optical system;
a first filter disposed at a pupil plane of the detection optical system,
the first filter having a plurality of regions of different transmission characteristics regarding the scattered light;
a second filter disposed near the pupil plane of the detection optical system,
the second filter having a plurality of regions with different polarization characteristics regarding the scattered light; and
a sensor configured to detect scattered light filtered by the first and second filters.

6. An inspection device, comprising:
an illumination optical system configured to emit light onto a surface of a sample;
a detection optical system configured to detect scattered light from the sample caused by the illumination optical system;
a first filter disposed near a pupil plane of the detection optical system,
the first filter having a plurality of regions of different transmission characteristics regarding the scattered light;
a second filter disposed at the pupil plane of the detection optical system,
the second filter having a plurality of regions with different polarization characteristics regarding the scattered light; and
a sensor configured to detect scattered light filtered by the first and second filters.

Assignees

• Hitachi High Tech Corp

Inventors

• Otani Yuko
• Tachizaki Takehiro
• Watanabe Masahiro
• Matsumoto Shunichi

Classifications

• G01N2021/8848

  Polarisation of light · CPC title

• G01N21/9501

  Semiconductor wafers (manufacturing processes per se of semiconductor devices implementing a measuring step H10P74/20) · CPC title

• G01N21/21 Primary

  Polarisation-affecting properties (G01N21/19 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01N21/94

  Investigating contamination, e.g. dust (G01N21/85 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01N21/95623

  using a spatial filtering method (per se G02B) · CPC title