Inspection apparatus and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9304077-B2
Application number	US-201113166384-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 22, 2011
Priority date	Jun 28, 2010
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

Ghost reflections in a catadioptric scatterometer objective are excluded from an angle-resolved spectrum measurement by using a partial pupil for illumination and for the measurement excluding the area of the pupil plane that has been illuminated. Ghost reflections are reflected back into same point in the pupil plane. The ghost reflections do not interfere with the signal in the non-illuminated area of the pupil plane. An illumination system provides a beam of electromagnetic radiation to illuminate a first area in an illumination pupil plane of the objective. The objective is arranged as to illuminate the substrate with the beam of electromagnetic radiation. The illumination pupil plane is the back projected image of the pupil plane of the objective and is also imaged into the measurement pupil plane at the back focal plane of the objective, via auxiliary optics. A detector is configured to measure an angle resolved spectrum arising from the illumination of the substrate, in a measurement area of the measurement pupil plane of the objective excluding an area corresponding to the first area.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An inspection apparatus for inspecting a substrate, comprising:
an illumination system configured to provide a beam of electromagnetic radiation by illuminating a first area in an illumination pupil plane of an objective,
the objective being configured to illuminate the substrate with the beam of electromagnetic radiation; and
a detector configured to measure an angle resolved spectrum arising from the illumination of the substrate, in a measurement area of a measurement pupil plane of the objective excluding an area corresponding to the first area.

2. The inspection apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the illumination system is configured to provide the beam of electromagnetic radiation without illuminating a second area of the illumination pupil plane, wherein the second area is an inversion of the first area through the centre of the illumination pupil plane; and
the measurement area corresponds to at least the second area.

3. The inspection apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a measurement aperture in the measurement pupil plane operable to exclude the area corresponding to the first area from the measurement pupil plane.

4. The inspection apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a processor configured to exclude the area corresponding to the first area from the measurement pupil plane by selecting a subset of measurement data from the detector.

5. The inspection apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the objective comprises a curved surface through which the beam of electromagnetic radiation passes normal to the surface giving rise to first order ghost reflections.

6. The inspection apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the objective comprises a curved surface through which electromagnetic radiation from the substrate passes normal to the surface giving rise to second order ghost reflections.

7. The inspection apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the curved surface comprises a spherical surface.

8. The inspection apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the illumination system comprises an illumination aperture operable in the illumination pupil plane to define the first area.

9. The inspection apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the illumination aperture is configurable to optimally match a pattern to be measured by the illumination of the substrate.

10. A method of inspecting a substrate, the method comprising:
providing a beam of electromagnetic radiation by illuminating a first area in an illumination pupil plane of an objective;
illuminating the substrate with the beam of electromagnetic radiation via the objective; and
measuring an angle resolved spectrum arising from the illumination of the substrate, in a measurement area of a measurement pupil plane of the objective excluding an area corresponding to the first area.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
the providing the beam of electromagnetic radiation is performed without illuminating a second area of the illumination pupil plane, wherein the second area is an inversion of the first area through the centre of the illumination pupil plane; and
the measurement area corresponds to at least the second area.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising operating a measurement aperture in the measurement pupil plane to exclude the area corresponding to the first area from the measurement pupil plane.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising excluding the area corresponding to the first area from the measurement pupil plane by selecting a subset of data measured in the measuring the angle resolved spectrum.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising using an objective comprising a curved surface through which the beam of electromagnetic radiation passes normal to the surface giving rise to first order ghost reflections.

15. The method of claim 10 , further comprising using an objective comprising a curved surface through which electromagnetic radiation from the substrate passes normal to the surface giving rise to second order ghost reflections.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the curved surface comprises a spherical surface.

Assignees

• Stevens Lucas Henricus Johannes
• Bleeker Arno Jan
• Asml Netherlands Bv

Inventors

• Stevens Lucas Henricus Johannes
• Bleeker Arno Jan

Classifications

• G01N21/1717 Primary

  with a modulation of one or more physical properties of the sample during the optical investigation, e.g. electro-reflectance · CPC title

• G01N21/95623 Primary

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

• G01N21/00

  Investigating or analysing materials by the use of optical means, i.e. using sub-millimetre waves, infrared, visible or ultraviolet light (G01N3/00 - G01N19/00 take precedence) · CPC title