Inspection apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9151719-B2
Application number	US-201214361657-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 19, 2012
Priority date	Dec 27, 2011
Publication date	Oct 6, 2015
Grant date	Oct 6, 2015

Abstract

When it is tried to detect a microscopic defect, it is desired that the width of the above-mentioned illuminated region in the minor axis direction should be short. In the related art, although an illuminated region is formed by converging light by some means, it is not easy to form an illuminated region with a narrower width. This is because various aberrations possessed by optical elements themselves used for convergence, aberrations possessed by other optical elements disposed on optical paths, assembly errors, and the like have undesired influence on the formation of linear illumination. In the related art, sufficient consideration has not been paid to the above points. The present invention is characterized in that it includes a system for changing the wavefront of light.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An inspection apparatus comprising:
a wavefront changing unit that reflects light for illuminating a sample, and changes the wavefront of the light; and
an illuminated region forming unit that forms a linear illuminated region on the sample by converging the light reflected by the wavefront changing unit,
wherein the wavefront changing unit includes a reflection plane and a driving section for changing the condition of the reflection plane, and
wherein the wavefront changing unit irradiates light, whose wavefront is optically inverse to a wavefront onto which a factor undesired for inspection is superimposed, onto the illuminated region forming unit.

2. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the optically inverse wavefront is a wavefront having a phase that is the inverse of the phase of the wavefront onto which the factor undesired for the inspection is superimposed.

3. The inspection apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the width of the illuminated region is equal to or smaller than the width of a focused focal region for the inspection.

4. The inspection apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising:
an oblique detection optical system,
wherein the focused focal region is a region where the focused focal plane of the oblique detection optical system and the surface of the sample intersect with each other.

5. The inspection apparatus according to claim 4 , further comprising:
a wavefront sensor that obtains the state of the wavefront of the light reflected by the wavefront changing unit,
wherein the wavefront changing unit changes the wavefront of light entering the illuminated region forming unit into a wavefront with substantially no aberration using information obtained from the wavefront sensor, and
wherein the wavefront changing unit further changes the wavefront with no aberration into the wavefront having a phase that is the inverse of the phase of the wavefront onto which the factor undesired for the inspection is superimposed.

6. The inspection apparatus according to claim 5 , further comprising:
a processing unit that creates data used for changing the wavefront with no aberration into the wavefront having the phase that is the inverse of the phase of the wavefront onto which the factor undesired for the inspection is superimposed.

7. The inspection apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the driving section is disposed at the rear surface of the reflection plane, and includes a plurality of piezoelectric elements that press the rear surface.

8. The inspection apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the driving section is disposed at the rear surface of the reflection plane, and includes a plurality of electrostatic components that press the rear surface.

9. The inspection apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the driving section includes a first actuator that performs driving with a first spatial resolution, and a second actuator that performs driving with a second spatial resolution higher than the first spatial resolution.

10. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the illuminated region forming unit forms the illuminated region while changing an elevation angle to the sample, and
wherein the wavefront changing unit changes the wavefront of the light for illuminating the sample in accordance with the change of the elevation angle.

11. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the illuminated region forming unit converges first light and second light onto the substrate at two different elevation angles respectively,
wherein the wavefront of the first light is changed into a first wavefront by the wavefront changing unit, and enters the illuminated region forming unit, and
wherein the wavefront of the second light is changed into a second wavefront by the wavefront changing unit, and enters the illuminated region forming unit.

12. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the wavefront changing unit changes the wavefront of the light in accordance with the height of a pattern on the sample.

13. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an environmental measurement unit,
wherein the wavefront changing unit changes the wavefront of the light in accordance with the measurement result measured by the environmental measurement unit.

Assignees

• Hitachi High Tech Corp

Inventors

• Taniguchi Koichi
• Shimura Kei
• Uto Sachio

Classifications

• G02B26/0825

  the reflecting element being a flexible sheet or membrane, e.g. for varying the focus (flexible mirrors for cosmetic use A45D42/24) · CPC title

• G01N21/95684

  Patterns showing highly reflecting parts, e.g. metallic elements · CPC title

• G01N2021/4707

  Forward scatter; Low angle scatter · CPC title

• G01N21/47

  Scattering, i.e. diffuse reflection (G01N21/25, G01N21/41 take precedence {G01N21/55 takes precedence}) · CPC title

• G01N21/9505 Primary

  Wafer internal defects, e.g. microcracks · CPC title