An Automated System For Submicrometer Defect Detection On Patterned Wafers

Michel Darboux; Anne Falut; Jean-Luc Jacquot; Claude Doche

doi:10.1117/12.961759

11 October 1989 An Automated System For Submicrometer Defect Detection On Patterned Wafers

Michel Darboux, Anne Falut, Jean-Luc Jacquot, Claude Doche

Proceedings Volume 1138, Optical Microlithography and Metrology for Microcircuit Fabrication; (1989) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.961759
Event: 1989 International Congress on Optical Science and Engineering, 1989, Paris, France

Abstract

Nowadays process control has become essential for yield management in VLSI manufacturing so there is a growing need for automated in-process wafer inspection systems. In this paper we describe a fast automated system for submicrometer defect detection on patterned wafers, based on an improved image comparison algorithm. After a brief discussion of the different inspection modes and their applications, we introduce our image processing algorithm, including : subpixel spatial alignment, interimage dynamic range adaptation, multi-threshold efficient binarization, defect identification based on a specific morphological method. This algorithm provide both a significant improvement of true defect detection and a reduction of the false defect rate. Then we describe the main components of the inspection machine : the optical parts, the mechanical parts and a Fast Image Processing Unit (FIPU) based on a pipeline architecture including special purpose hardware. The FIPU allows the inspection of a 125 µm x 125 μm field in 200 ms with a defect sensitivity of 0.3 μm. Finally we report a few experimental results obtained by applying our algorithm on some real inspection problems and we compare these results with those obtained by standard inspection algorithm.

Citation Download Citation

Michel Darboux, Anne Falut, Jean-Luc Jacquot, and Claude Doche "An Automated System For Submicrometer Defect Detection On Patterned Wafers", Proc. SPIE 1138, Optical Microlithography and Metrology for Microcircuit Fabrication, (11 October 1989); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.961759

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