公开(公告)号：US11670528B2

公开(公告)日：2023-06-06

申请号：US16908386

申请日：2020-06-22

Applicant: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation

Inventor： Naoaki Kondo ,  Minoru Harada ,  Yohei Minekawa ,  Takehiro Hirai

IPC: H01L21/67 ,  G06T7/00 ,  H01L21/66

CPC classification number: H01L21/67253 ,  G06T7/001 ,  H01L22/26 ,  G06T2207/10061 ,  G06T2207/30148

Abstract: Provided is a wafer observation apparatus includes: a scanning electron microscope; a control unit which includes a wafer observation unit that observes a wafer of a semiconductor device, and an image acquisition unit that acquires a wafer image; a storage unit which includes an image storage unit that stores the wafer image and a template image, and a recipe storage unit that stores a wafer alignment recipe including a matching success and failure determination threshold value, an image processing parameter set, and a use priority associated with the template image; and a calculation unit which includes a recipe reading unit that reads the template image and the wafer alignment recipe, a recipe update necessity determination unit that determines update necessity of the wafer alignment recipe, and a recipe updating unit that updates the wafer alignment recipe based on a determination result in the recipe update necessity determination unit.

公开(公告)号：US12260545B2

公开(公告)日：2025-03-25

申请号：US17840798

申请日：2022-06-15

Applicant: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation

Inventor： Yuki Doi ,  Naoaki Kondo ,  Minoru Harada ,  Hideki Nakayama ,  Yohei Minekawa ,  Yuji Takagi

IPC: G06T7/00 ,  G01N21/95 ,  G06T7/73

Abstract: In learning processing performed before sample observation processing (steps S705 to S708), the sample observation device acquires a low-picture quality learning image under a first imaging condition for each defect position indicated by defect position information, determines an imaging count of a plurality of high-picture quality learning images associated with the low-picture quality learning image for each defect position and a plurality of imaging points based on a set value of the imaging count, acquires the plurality of high-picture quality learning images under a second imaging condition (step S702), learns a high-picture quality image estimation model using the low-picture quality learning image and the plurality of high-picture quality learning images (step S703), and adjusts a parameter related to the defect detection in the sample observation processing using the high-picture quality image estimation model (step S704).

公开(公告)号：US11087454B2

公开(公告)日：2021-08-10

申请号：US16493697

申请日：2017-03-17

Applicant: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION

Inventor： Naoaki Kondo ,  Minoru Harada ,  Yuji Takagi ,  Takehiro Hirai

IPC: G06T7/00 ,  G01N21/95 ,  G01N21/956

Abstract: A defect observation device comprising: a defect determination coordinate creation unit by which the coordinates of a plurality of second defect candidates are determined as overlapping defect candidate coordinates, the plurality of second defect candidates respectively having, in a plurality of second imaging visual field regions overlapping a first imaging visual field region, a circuit pattern which partly overlaps a circuit pattern in the first imaging visual field region, in which a first defect candidate for defect determination among a plurality of defect candidates of a sample is present; a pseudo-reference image generation unit which generates a pseudo-reference image including a circuit pattern of the first defect candidate by superimposing a plurality of images respectively captured at the plurality of overlapping defect candidate coordinates; and a defect determination unit which compares an image for defect determination captured at the coordinates of the first defect candidate with the pseudo-reference image to determine the presence or absence of a defect in the image for defect determination.

公开(公告)号：US12154264B2

公开(公告)日：2024-11-26

申请号：US17781473

申请日：2019-12-24

Applicant: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION

Inventor： Minoru Harada ,  Naoaki Kondo ,  Yohei Minekawa

IPC: G06T7/00 ,  G06V10/74

Abstract: A defect inspecting system includes a detector configured to image a sample and a host control device that acquires an inspection image including a defect and a plurality of reference images not including a defect site and generates a pseudo defect image by editing a predetermined reference image among the plurality of acquired reference images. An initial parameter is determined with which the pseudo defect site is detectable from the pseudo defect image. The host control device acquires a defect candidate site from the inspection image using the initial parameter, estimates a high-quality image from an image of a site corresponding to the defect candidate site using the parameter acquired in image quality enhancement, and specifies an actual defect site in the inspection image by executing defect discrimination. A parameter is determined with which a site close to the specified actual defect site is detectable using the inspection image.

公开(公告)号：US10783625B2

公开(公告)日：2020-09-22

申请号：US15720411

申请日：2017-09-29

Applicant: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION

Inventor： Minoru Harada ,  Ryo Nakagaki ,  Fumihiko Fukunaga ,  Yuji Takagi

IPC: H04N7/18 ,  G06T7/00 ,  G03F7/20 ,  H01L23/544 ,  H01L21/66

Abstract: A method for measuring overlay at a semiconductor device on which circuit patterns are formed by a plurality of exposure processes is characterized in including an image capturing step for capturing images of a plurality of areas of the semiconductor device, a reference image setting step for setting a reference image based on a plurality of the images captured in the image capturing step, a difference quantifying step for quantifying a difference between the reference image set in the reference image setting step and the plurality of images captured in the image capturing step, and an overlay calculating step for calculating the overlay based on the difference quantified in the difference quantifying step.

公开(公告)号：US10971325B2

公开(公告)日：2021-04-06

申请号：US16567687

申请日：2019-09-11

Applicant: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION

Inventor： Minoru Harada ,  Yuji Takagi ,  Naoaki Kondo ,  Takehiro Hirai ,  Yohei Minekawa

IPC: H01J37/147 ,  G01N21/956 ,  G06T7/00 ,  G01N21/95 ,  G06T5/50 ,  H01L21/67 ,  H01J37/28 ,  G06T7/12

Abstract: In a device for observing a semiconductor wafer, a positional relationship between an in-wafer region and a background region in an imaging field of view is not constant when an outer peripheral portion of the wafer is imaged, which results in an increase in the quantity of calculation in defect detection and image classification processing and makes it difficult to efficiently perform defect observation and analysis. There is provided a defect observation system for a semiconductor wafer, and the system includes: a stage on which the semiconductor wafer is placed and which is movable in an XY direction, an imaging unit that is configured to image a portion including an edge of the semiconductor wafer, and an image output unit that is configured to, with respect to a plurality of images obtained by imaging, output images in which edges of the wafer are substantially in parallel among the plurality of images.

公开(公告)号：US20220405905A1

公开(公告)日：2022-12-22

申请号：US17840798

申请日：2022-06-15

Applicant: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation

Inventor： Yuki Doi ,  Naoaki Kondo ,  Minoru Harada ,  Hideki Nakayama ,  Yohei Minekawa ,  Yuji Takagi

IPC: G06T7/00 ,  G06T7/73 ,  G01N21/95

Abstract: In learning processing performed before sample observation processing (steps S705 to S708), the sample observation device acquires a low-picture quality learning image under a first imaging condition for each defect position indicated by defect position information, determines an imaging count of a plurality of high-picture quality learning images associated with the low-picture quality learning image for each defect position and a plurality of imaging points based on a set value of the imaging count, acquires the plurality of high-picture quality learning images under a second imaging condition (step S702), learns a high-picture quality image estimation model using the low-picture quality learning image and the plurality of high-picture quality learning images (step S703), and adjusts a parameter related to the defect detection in the sample observation processing using the high-picture quality image estimation model (step S704).

公开(公告)号：US11177111B2

公开(公告)日：2021-11-16

申请号：US16824872

申请日：2020-03-20

Applicant: Hitachi High-Tech Corporation

Inventor： Akira Ito ,  Minoru Harada ,  Yohei Minekawa ,  Takehiro Hirai

IPC: H01J37/28 ,  H01J37/22 ,  H01J37/244 ,  H01J37/26 ,  H01J37/153 ,  G06N20/00 ,  G06T7/00 ,  H01J37/20

Abstract: A defect observation device is configured to include a charged particle microscope and a controller including a control unit that controls the charged particle microscope, a storage unit, and an arithmetic unit, in which the control unit controls the charged particle microscope under a first condition to acquire a first image of an observation target region of the sample, the arithmetic unit extracts first position information of the observation target region from the obtained first image, the control unit controls the charged particle microscope under a second condition to acquire a second image of the observation target region of the sample, and the arithmetic unit performs an image quality conversion process to match the image quality of the acquired second image with the image quality of the first image using the image quality conversion process parameters to process the second image subjected to the image quality conversion process.