Method of inspecting a surface of an object and optical system for performing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9702826-B2
Application number	US-201514751477-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2015
Priority date	Sep 11, 2014
Publication date	Jul 11, 2017
Grant date	Jul 11, 2017

Abstract

A method of inspecting a surface of an object includes providing a laser beam irradiated in a first direction substantially parallel to the surface of the object, adjusting a diameter of the annular laser beam, reflecting the annular laser beam toward the surface of the object in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction, in a primary reflection, and reflecting the primarily reflected laser toward an inspection region of the object, in a secondary reflection. An incident angle of the annular laser beam with respect to the surface of the object may be determined by the diameter of the annular laser beam.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of inspecting a surface of an object, the method comprising:
providing a laser beam irradiated in a first direction substantially parallel to the surface of the object with an annular shape;
adjusting a diameter of the annular laser beam by adjusting a distance between a first axicon lens and a second axicon lens;
reflecting the annular laser beam in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction toward the surface of the object, in a primary reflection; and
reflecting the primarily reflected laser beam to an inspection region on the surface of the object, in a secondary reflection,
wherein an incident angle of the annular laser beam with respect to the surface of the object is determined by the diameter of the annular laser beam.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising enlarging the diameter of the laser beam, and focusing the laser beam, before providing the laser beam with the annular shape.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising absorbing a portion of the annular laser beam to change an incident angle of the secondarily reflected laser with respect to the inspection region of the object.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the object comprises a semiconductor substrate or a glass substrate.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising detecting a laser beam reflected from the inspection region of the object.

6. An optical system comprising:
a laser source configured to irradiate a laser beam in a first direction substantially parallel to a surface of an object;
first and second axicon lenses configured to provide the laser beam with an annular shape;
a gap-adjusting member configured to adjust a distance between the first axicon lens and the second axicon lens to change a diameter of the annular laser beam;
an inclined mirror inclined with respect to the first direction on an optical path of light reflected from the surface of the object to primarily reflect the annular laser beam in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction toward the surface of the object, the inclined mirror having a hole through which the laser beam reflected from the surface of the object propagates; and
a parabolic mirror positioned between the object and the inclined mirror to secondarily reflect the primarily reflected laser beam from the inclined mirror to an inspection region on the surface of the object.

7. The optical system of claim 6 , wherein the gap-adjusting member is connected to the second axicon lens to change a position of the second axicon lens with respect to the first axicon lens.

8. The optical system of claim 6 , wherein the inclined mirror is inclined with respect to the first direction at an angle of about 45°.

9. The optical system of claim 6 , further comprising a filter positioned between the second axicon lens and the inclined mirror to absorb a portion of the annular laser beam to determine a specific incident angle of the secondarily reflected laser beam with respect to the inspection region of the object.

10. The optical system of claim 6 , further comprising:
a concave lens positioned between the laser source and the first axicon lens that enlarges a diameter of the laser beam; and
a convex lens positioned between the concave lens and the first axicon lens that focuses the enlarged laser beam along the first direction.

11. The optical system of claim 6 , further comprising
a detecting unit configured to detect the laser beam reflected from the inspection region of the object, wherein the detecting unit comprises:
an objective lens positioned between the inclined mirror and the surface of the object;
an imaging lens positioned over the inclined mirror that forms an image from the laser beam propagating through the objective lens and the hole of the inclined mirror; and
a camera positioned over the imaging lens to photograph the image.

12. The optical system of claim 6 , wherein the object comprises a semiconductor substrate or a glass substrate.

13. An optical system comprising:
a laser source configured to irradiate a laser beam in a first direction substantially parallel to a surface of an object;
first and second axicon lenses configured to provide the laser beam with an annular shape;
a filter configured to absorb a portion of the annular laser beam;
an inclined mirror inclined with respect to the first direction on an optical path of light reflected from the surface of the object to primarily reflect the annular laser beam in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction toward the surface of the object, the inclined mirror having a hole through which the laser beam reflected from the surface of the object propagates;
a parabolic mirror positioned between the object and the inclined mirror to secondarily reflect the primarily reflected laser beam from the inclined mirror to an inspection region on the surface of the object; and
a gap-adjusting member configured to adjust a distance between the first axicon lens and the second axicon lens to change a diameter of the annular laser beam, wherein the gap-adjusting member is connected to the second axicon lens to change a position of the second axicon lens with respect to the first axicon lens.

14. The optical system of claim 13 , wherein the inclined mirror is inclined to the first direction at an angle of about 45°.

15. The optical system of claim 13 , further comprising:
a concave lens positioned between the laser source and the first axicon lens that enlarges a diameter of the laser beam; and
a convex lens positioned between the concave lens and the first axicon lens that focuses the enlarged laser beam along the first direction.

16. The optical system of claim 13 , further comprising
a detecting unit configured to detect the laser beam reflected from the inspection region of the object, wherein the detecting unit comprises:
an objective lens positioned between the inclined mirror and the surface of the object;
an imaging lens positioned over the inclined mirror that forms an image from the laser beam propagating through the objective lens and the hole of the inclined mirror; and
a camera positioned over the imaging lens to photograph the image.

17. The optical system of claim 13 , wherein the filter is positioned between the second axicon lens and the inclined mirror and determines a specific incident angle of the secondarily reflected laser beam with respect to the inspection region of the object.

18. The optical system of claim 13 , wherein the object comprises a semiconductor substrate or a glass substrate.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Hashimoto Kohei
• Kim Wook-Rae
• Jeon Byeong-Hwan
• Choi Chang-Hoon

Classifications

• G01N21/958

  Inspecting transparent materials {or objects, e.g. windscreens (for conveyed flat sheet or rod G01N21/896)} · CPC title

• G01N2201/0636

  Reflectors · CPC title

• G01N2201/06113

  Coherent sources; lasers · CPC title

• G01N21/9501

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

• G01N21/8806 Primary

  Specially adapted optical and illumination features · CPC title