System and method for inspecting a wafer

Abstract

A method and a system for inspecting a wafer. The system comprises an optical inspection head, a wafer table, a wafer stack, a XY table and vibration isolators. The optical inspection head comprises a number of illuminators, image capture devices, objective lens and other optical components. The system and method enables capture of brightfield images, darkfield images, 3D profile images and review images. Captured images are converted into image signals and transmitted to a programmable controller for processing. Inspection is performed while the wafer is in motion. Captured images are compared with reference images for detecting defects on the wafer. An exemplary reference creation process for creating reference images and an exemplary image inspection process is also provided by the present invention. The reference image creation process is an automated process.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a process of wafer inspection. In particular, it relates to automated systems and methods for inspecting semiconductor components. Background technique [0002] The ability to assure the quality of the production of semiconductor components, such as semiconductor wafers and chips, is of increasing importance in semiconductor manufacturing. The manufacturing process of semiconductor wafers has been continuously improved to incorporate an increasing number of feature sizes into semiconductor wafers with small surface areas. As a result, photolithographic processes are becoming more sophisticated for the production of semiconductor wafers, allowing an increasing number of feature sizes to be incorporated into semiconductor wafers with smaller surface areas (eg, resulting in higher performance semiconductor wafers). Therefore, the size of possible errors on a semiconductor wafer is typically in the micron to sub-micron range. ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, due to the current lack of professional technical knowledge and operational skills, despite the flexibility in design and construction, existing semiconductor wafer inspection systems cannot simultaneously perform bright-field and dark-field imaging for inspection while the wafer is moving.

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