Patent · US Active

Inspection method and inspection apparatus using charged particle beam

US7449690B2 · kind B2 · utility

20Cited by
0References
20Claims
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Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 9, 2006
Grant dateNov 11, 2008
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 1, 2027

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH01J2237/2817
  • WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

To establish a technique that enables sorting of the elevation and azimuth angle in the direction of emitting secondary electrons and obtaining images with emphasized contrast, in order to perform the review and analysis of shallow asperities and microscopic foreign particles in a wafer inspection during the manufacture of semiconductor devices, an electromagnetic overlapping objective lens is used to achieve high resolution, an electron beam is narrowly focused using the objective lens, an electric field for accelerating secondary electrons in the vicinity of a wafer in order to suppress the dependence on secondary electron energy of the rotation of secondary electrons generated by irradiation of the electron beam, a ring-shaped detector plate is disposed between an electron source and the objective lens, and the low angle components of the elevation angle of the secondary electrons, as viewed from the place of generation, and the high angle components are separated and also the azimuth components are separated and detected.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.