公开(公告)号：DE3584222D1

公开(公告)日：1991-10-31

申请号：DE3584222

申请日：1985-09-30

Applicant: IBM

Inventor： BRONTE JOSEPH JAMES ,  HEBERT ROLAND CHARLES ,  KHOURY HENRI ANTOINE

IPC: G01N21/88 ,  G01B11/30 ,  G01N21/93 ,  G01N21/94 ,  G01N21/95 ,  G01N21/956 ,  H01L21/66 ,  G06F15/70

Abstract: A method and apparatus for automatically detecting defects on the surfaces of semiconductor wafers (40) and chips which provides a 100% inspection capability. The entire surface of each water is scanned by use of a low magnification, low resolution detector (104) such as a photodiode array. Whenever a defect occurs, encoders (20) on the supporting XY table are triggered, such that the location of a defect on the wafer is recorded. After the event coordinates have been determined, the XY table positions each defect directly under a high magnification detector (204) to determine the nature of the detected event. Since only the locations of the detected events are stored, 100% of the processed wafers can be scanned for defects.