IP Library › Granted Patent US 11,143,600
Granted Patent B2
US 11,143,600 · App. 16/961,340 · Granted Oct 12, 2021

Defect inspection device

Inventors: Toshifumi Honda (Tokyo, JP); Masami Makuuchi (Tokyo, JP); Shunichi Matsumoto (Tokyo, JP); Akira Hamamatsu (Tokyo, JP); Nobuhiro Obara (Tokyo, JP)
Assignee: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION
G01N21/956G01N21/47G01N21/8851G01N21/8901G01N21/8903G01N21/9501G03F7/7065H01L22/12G01N2021/8861G01N2021/8874G01N2021/8896G01N2201/06113
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,143,600
App. No.
16/961,340
Granted
Oct 12, 2021
Kind
B2
Abstract

The invention includes a pulse oscillated light source, an illumination unit that guides light output from the light source to a sample, a scanning unit that controls a position at which the sample is scanned by the illumination unit, a light converging unit that converges light reflected from the sample, a first photoelectric conversion unit that outputs an electric signal corresponding to the light converged by the light converging unit, an AD conversion unit that converts the electric signal output from the first photoelectric conversion unit into a digital signal in synchronization with pulse oscillation of the light source, a linear restoration unit that processes a digital signal converted by the AD conversion unit in synchronization with a pulse oscillation output by the AD conversion unit and corrects nonlinearity of the first photoelectric conversion unit, a defect detection unit that detects a defect of the sample based on an output of the linear restoration unit, and a processing unit that obtains and outputs a position and a size of the defect detected by the defect detection unit.

Claims (40)

1. A defect inspection device comprising:

a pulse oscillation light source;

an illumination unit that guides light output from the light source to a sample;

a scanning unit that controls a position at which the sample is scanned by the illumination unit;

a light converging unit that converges light reflected from the sample;

a first photoelectric conversion unit that outputs an electric signal corresponding to the light converged by the light converging unit;

an Analog-to-Digital (AD) conversion unit that converts the electric signal output from the first photoelectric conversion unit into a digital signal in synchronization with a pulse oscillation of the light source;

a linear restoration unit that processes a digital signal converted by the AD conversion unit in synchronization with a pulse oscillation output by the AD conversion unit and corrects nonlinearity of the first photoelectric conversion unit;

a defect detection unit that detects a defect of the sample based on an output of the linear restoration unit;

a processing unit that obtains and outputs a position and a size of the defect detected by the defect detection unit;

a second photoelectric conversion unit that outputs an electric signal corresponding to light reflected from a predetermined position of the illumination unit; and

a reflected light amount estimation unit that estimates a reflected light amount at a specific timing from the sample input by the first photoelectric conversion unit after a timing when an output of the second photoelectric conversion unit is acquired, wherein

the light converging unit includes an aperture which is provided with an opening portion arranged in a central portion and a reflection portion arranged at an end portion, and

light passing through the opening portion is detected by the first photoelectric conversion unit, and light reflected by the reflection portion is detected by the second photoelectric conversion unit.

2. The defect inspection device according to claim 1 , wherein

the first photoelectric conversion unit includes a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements operating in a Geiger mode.

3. The defect inspection device according to claim 1 , wherein

the second photoelectric conversion unit outputs an electric signal corresponding to the light reflected from the vicinity of the base of a Gaussian distribution of the illumination spot of the illumination unit.

4. The defect inspection device according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a dividing unit that divides the light converged by the light converging unit into the first photoelectric conversion unit and the second photoelectric conversion unit and outputs the divided light.

5. The defect inspection device according to claim 1 , wherein

the illumination unit includes a polarization control unit that controls a polarization direction of the light output from the light source; and

a light amount control unit that guides the light in a specific polarization direction to the sample within a polarization direction controlled by the polarization control unit, wherein

the polarization control unit and the light amount control unit reduce a light amount of the light guided to the sample by changing a polarization direction of the light at a timing when the reflected light amount estimation unit estimates that a reflected light amount equal to or more than a measurement range of the first photoelectric conversion unit is detected.

6. The defect inspection device according to claim 5 , wherein

the light amount control unit is configured by a combination of at least one serially connected electro-optical element and a polarization beam splitter.

7. The defect inspection device according to claim 1 , wherein

the first photoelectric conversion unit includes

a plurality of avalanche photodiodes operating in a Geiger mode; and

an amplification rate switching unit configured to switch an amplification rate of the electric signal in a time period of equal to or less than 1 millisecond, wherein

the amplification rate switching unit decreases the amplification rate at a timing when the reflected light amount estimation unit estimates that a reflected light amount equal to or more than the measurement range of the first photoelectric conversion unit is detected by controlling a reverse voltage of the avalanche photodiodes.

8. The defect inspection device according to claim 2 , wherein

the photoelectric conversion element of the first photoelectric conversion unit is electrically connected to each predetermined area and outputs the electric signal by separating the ones which are electrically connected to each other, and

the area corresponds to a position of the sample.

9. The defect inspection device according to claim 2 , wherein

the photoelectric conversion element of the first photoelectric conversion unit is electrically connected to each predetermined area and outputs the electric signal by separating the ones which are electrically connected to each other, and

the area corresponds to a position of the pupil plane of the light converging unit.

10. The defect inspection device according to claim 2 , wherein

the photoelectric conversion element of the first photoelectric conversion unit is electrically connected to each predetermined area and outputs the electric signal by separating the ones which are electrically connected to each other, and

the area corresponds to a position where the sample surface and the pupil plane of the light converging unit are combined.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 10, 2020
From: HONDA, TOSHIFUMI; MAKUUCHI, MASAMI; MATSUMOTO, SHUNICHI; HAMAMATSU, AKIRA; OBARA, NOBUHIRO
To: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 053175/0726 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20200371047A1 · Nov 26, 2020
Cited By (3)
US 12,345,658 US 12,504,382 US 12,560,554