X-ray inspection device, inspection method, and X-ray detector

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9506876-B2
Application number	US-201214371427-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 12, 2012
Priority date	Feb 6, 2012
Publication date	Nov 29, 2016
Grant date	Nov 29, 2016

Abstract

The X-ray inspection device includes: an X-ray source with a focal spot size greater than the diameter of a defect for irradiating a sample with X-rays; an X-ray TDI detector arranged near the sample and having long pixels in a direction parallel to the scanning direction of the sample for detecting the X-rays emitted by the X-ray source and passing through the sample as an X-ray transmission image; and a defect-detecting unit for detecting defects based on the X-ray transmission image detected by the X-ray TDI detector.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An X-ray inspection device, comprising:
an X-ray source irradiating X-rays on a sample;
an X-ray Time Delay Integration (TDI) detector, for detecting X-rays irradiated by said X-ray source and transmitted through said sample as an X-ray transmission image, having a scintillator, an asymmetric fiber optic plate and a square-pixel TDI camera that, in combination, produce flat rectangular detector pixels that are longer in a direction parallel to a scanning direction of said sample, the X-ray TDI detector being arranged adjacent to said sample; and
a defect detection part detecting defects on the basis of X-ray transmission images detected by means of said X-ray TDI detector.

2. The X-ray inspection device according to claim 1 , wherein: an amount of blurring of said X-ray transmission images is smaller than a size of the defects detected in said defect detection part.

3. The X-ray inspection device according to claim 1 , wherein: the distance between a focal spot of said X-ray source and said X-ray TDI detector is much longer than a distance between said sample and said X-ray TDI detector.

4. The X-ray inspection device according to claim 1 , wherein the X-ray source has a focal spot size greater than a defect diameter.

5. The X-ray inspection device according to claim 1 , wherein the fiber optic plate is tapered.

6. The X-ray inspection device according to claim 1 , wherein the TDI detector further comprises an aperture mask arranged on a top surface of the scintillator and an aperture mask arranged on a bottom surface of the scintillator, the resolution of the top and bottom surface masks being higher than the resolution of the scintillator.

7. An X-ray inspection method, comprising:
irradiating X-rays on a sample using an X-ray source;
detecting X-rays irradiated and transmitted through said sample as an X-ray transmission image using an X-ray TDI detector having a scintillator, an asymmetric fiber optic plate and a square-pixel TDI camera that, in combination, produce flat rectangular detector pixels that are longer in a direction parallel to the scanning direction of said sample, the TDI detector being arranged adjacent to said sample; and
detecting defects on the basis of X-ray transmission images detected.

8. The X-ray inspection method according to claim 7 , wherein: an amount of blurring of said X-ray transmission images is smaller than a size of the detected defects.

9. The X-ray inspection method according to claim 7 , wherein: a distance between a focal spot of said X-ray source and said X-ray TDI detector is much longer than a distance between said sample and said X-ray TDI detector.

10. The X-ray inspection method according to claim 7 , wherein the X-ray source has a focal spot size greater than a defect diameter.

11. The X-ray inspection method according to claim 7 , wherein the fiber optic plate is tapered.

12. The X-ray inspection method according to claim 7 , wherein the TDI detector further comprises an aperture mask arranged on a top surface of the scintillator and an aperture mask arranged on a bottom surface of the scintillator, the resolution of the top and bottom surface masks being higher than the resolution of the scintillator.

Assignees

• Hitachi High Tech Corp

Inventors

• Urano Yuta
• Honda Toshifumi
• Aoki Yasuko

Classifications

• G01N2223/642

  moving sheet, web · CPC title

• G01N2223/652

  impurities, foreign matter, trace amounts · CPC title

• G01N23/18

  Investigating the presence of flaws defects or foreign matter · CPC title

• G01T1/24

  with semiconductor detectors · CPC title

• G01N2223/643

  object on conveyor · CPC title