US20110019200A1 - Apparatus for visual inspection - Google Patents
Apparatus for visual inspection Download PDFInfo
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- US20110019200A1 US20110019200A1 US12/898,255 US89825510A US2011019200A1 US 20110019200 A1 US20110019200 A1 US 20110019200A1 US 89825510 A US89825510 A US 89825510A US 2011019200 A1 US2011019200 A1 US 2011019200A1
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- Prior art keywords
- beam splitter
- polarizing beam
- image sensor
- specimen
- visual inspection
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- G—PHYSICS
- G01—MEASURING; TESTING
- G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
- G01N21/00—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of optical means, i.e. using sub-millimetre waves, infrared, visible or ultraviolet light
- G01N21/17—Systems in which incident light is modified in accordance with the properties of the material investigated
- G01N21/21—Polarisation-affecting properties
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- G—PHYSICS
- G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
- G03F—PHOTOMECHANICAL PRODUCTION OF TEXTURED OR PATTERNED SURFACES, e.g. FOR PRINTING, FOR PROCESSING OF SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; MATERIALS THEREFOR; ORIGINALS THEREFOR; APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED THEREFOR
- G03F1/00—Originals for photomechanical production of textured or patterned surfaces, e.g., masks, photo-masks, reticles; Mask blanks or pellicles therefor; Containers specially adapted therefor; Preparation thereof
- G03F1/68—Preparation processes not covered by groups G03F1/20 - G03F1/50
- G03F1/82—Auxiliary processes, e.g. cleaning or inspecting
- G03F1/84—Inspecting
Definitions
- the present invention relates to an apparatus for visual inspection adapted to detect defects of a pattern to be inspected and more particularly, to a visual inspection apparatus used for inspecting pattern defects and foreign particles in the course of production of a semiconductor wafer, a photo-mask, a printed circuit board and so on.
- a method is known as disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2000-155099, according to which when an illumination beam of rays of light is reflected on the surface of a specimen and an optical image of the specimen is formed by interference of a zero-order diffraction ray and higher-order diffraction rays of a reflected beam, the contrast of the optical image is improved to detect a defect of a fine wiring pattern formed on the specimen with high sensitivity.
- FIG. 4 A basic construction of an optical system used for the method is shown in FIG. 4 .
- a beam of light emitted from a light source 8 reaches an aperture stop 11 through a concave mirror and lens 9 and then is rendered to be incident on a polarizing beam splitter 15 by way of a lens, a band-pass filter 12 and a field stop 13 .
- the beam transmits through the polarizing beam splitter 15 and a resultant linearly polarized light beam leaving the splitter passes through a half waveplate 16 and a quarter waveplate 17 so as to be converted into an elliptically polarized light which in turn is irradiated on a specimen 1 by means of an objective lens 20 .
- the direction of major axis of the elliptically polarized light can be controlled by rotating the quarter waveplate 17 and the ellipticity of the elliptically polarized light can be controlled by rotating the half waveplate 16 .
- a beam of light reflected from the specimen 1 also enters the polarizing beam splitter 15 via the objective lens 20 , quarter waveplate 17 and half waveplate 16 and then only an S-polarised component is reflected and led to an imaging optics comprised of an imaging lens 30 and a zoom lens 50 .
- the optical image of the specimen 1 is formed on an image sensor 70 . Then the image is converted to image data and defects are detected by processing the image data.
- angles of the two waveplates are settled such that the specimen 1 is illuminated with a circularly polarized light, only a component having its polarization state unchanged during the reflection on the specimen surface is reflected at the polarizing beam splitter 15 and led to the imaging optics.
- angles of the two waveplates are settled such that the specimen 1 is illuminated with an elliptically polarized light, part of a component having its polarization state changed during the reflection on the specimen 1 is also reflected at the polarizing beam splitter 15 and led to the imaging optics.
- a beam of light rays diffracted by a linear pattern sometimes changes its polarization state but a zero-order ray does not change its polarization state. Accordingly, by illuminating the elliptically polarized light, the diffracted light component can be emphasized and then led to the imaging optics.
- the image sensor 70 is constructed of groups of pixels and typically, individual groups are called channels. For example, all the pixels on the sensor are divided into 32 or 64 channels.
- the SR intensity has dependency on channels of the image sensor. Accordingly, under one illumination condition, the sensitivity differs between channels and therefore the condition is settled by a value of average sensitivity. In order to improve the inspection sensitivity, the difference in sensitivity between channels of the image sensor needs to be reduced.
- An object of the present invention is to realize an optical system capable of improving the inspection sensitivity by reducing the dependency of the SR intensity upon channels on the image sensor.
- FIGS. 3A and 3B are useful to explain how the direction of the incident light, the reflection surface of polarizing beam splitter and the shape of a field of view of image sensor projected on the polarizing beam splitter are related to one another in the conventional visual inspection apparatus.
- the direction of an incident illumination light 3100 is substantially vertical to the longitudinal direction of the field of view of the image sensor, 3300 , which is projected on the polarizing beam splitter 15 .
- the incident angle shifts more largely at longitudinal ends than in the center portion and the direction of polarization of the reflected illumination light beam shifts. Since the longitudinal direction of oblong shape of the image sensor corresponds to the channel direction of the aforementioned 1 to 32 or 1 to 64 channels, the dependency on channels is caused as described previously.
- an optical system arrangement is adopted in which the direction of an incident light beam on the polarizing beam splitter is so adjusted as to be substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of a substantially oblong-shaped view field of the image sensor projected on the polarizing beam splitter.
- the polarization direction can be optimized easily and a reduction in sensitivity depending on channels can be obviated, with the result that the defect detection sensitivity can be improved as a whole.
- FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of a visual inspection apparatus according to the present invention.
- FIG. 2A is a top view showing an example of an optical system layout according to the invention in top view form.
- FIG. 2B is a side view showing an example of an optical system layout according to the invention.
- FIG. 2C is a graph for explaining effect of the optical system layout.
- FIG. 3A is a top view showing an optical system layout according to the prior art.
- FIG. 3B is a side view showing an optical system layout according to the prior art.
- FIG. 3C is a graph for explaining effect of the conventional optical system layout.
- FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of construction of an optical system of conventional visual inspection apparatus.
- FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing another embodiment of the visual inspection apparatus according to the invention.
- FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing still another embodiment of the visual inspection apparatus according the invention.
- FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another example of the optical system layout according to the invention.
- a specimen 1 is chucked on a stage 101 and is movable to optimum positions as necessary in rotating direction, X direction, Y direction and height direction, respectively.
- a beam of light rays emitted from a light source 8 reaches a polarizing beam splitter 15 by way of midway mirror 200 , sharp-cut filter 300 , lens 9 , cone lens 700 , diffuser 800 , ND filter 900 , band-pass filter 12 and opening of aperture stop 11 .
- the beam transmits through the filter and a resultant linearly polarized light leaving the polarizing beam splitter 15 travels through a half waveplate 16 and a quarter waveplate 17 so as to be converted into an elliptically polarized light which in turn is irradiated on the specimen 1 by means of an objective lens 20 .
- the direction of major axis of the elliptical polarization can be controlled by rotating the quarter waveplate 17 and the ellipticity of the elliptical polarization can be controlled by rotating the half waveplate 16 .
- a beam of light reflected from the specimen 1 enters the polarizing beam splitter 15 via the objective lens 20 , quarter waveplate 17 and half waveplate 16 and only an S-polarized component is reflected, thus traveling through an imaging lens 30 to form an image of the specimen 1 on the light receiving surface of an image sensor 2000 .
- Used as the image sensor 2000 is, for example, a linear sensor or a TDI image sensor.
- Part of the light beam reflected from the specimen 1 and then reflected from the polarizing beam splitter 15 is separated by means of a beam splitter 1800 and led to an auto-focus system 2100 , being used for controlling the specimen in the height direction.
- a mercury lamp or a xenon lamp may be used as the light source 8 but with a laser beam source used, a highly intensive photo-output can be obtained in the DUV (Deep Ultra Violet) range.
- DUV Deep Ultra Violet
- the image sensor 2000 referred to herein is a TDI image sensor having its light receiving surface constructed of 256 ⁇ 4096 CCD's and taking a rectangular form sized to 3.3 mm ⁇ 53.2 mm. Further, in the direction of 4096 pixels, the 4096 pixels are divided into, for example, 64 channels. Accordingly, in the present embodiment, the TDI image sensor has 64 channels in the longitudinal direction of the rectangular form.
- the image sensor 2000 is arranged in such a manner that its longitudinal direction coincides with the right and left direction on the sheet of drawing and therefore, the image sensor has its field of view, which is projected on the polarizing beam splitter 15 , in the horizontal direction on the sheet of drawing. Since the direction of optical path from the polarizing beam splitter 15 toward the imaging optics is horizontal on the sheet of drawing in the FIG. 1 , these directions coincide with each other.
- FIGS. 2A and 2B are schematically illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B .
- FIGS. 3A and 3B are side views. Effects of the present invention will be described by making reference to these Figures.
- FIG. 3A an incident light beam 3100 enters the polarizing beam splitter 15 horizontally in the left to right direction.
- the image sensor view field 3300 projected on the polarizing beam splitter 15 has its longitudinal direction (channel direction) coincident with the vertical direction.
- a reflection surface 3400 of the polarizing beam splitter is related to a reflection beam 3200 as shown in FIG. 3B .
- FIG. 3A shows a direction of polarization in the central part of the image sensor view field, 3600 b, and directions of polarization at the ends of the image sensor view field, 3600 a and 3600 c.
- Incident light rays reaching the individual positions (individual channels) of the image sensor view field have been incident on the reflection surface 3400 at different angles, so that the polarization directions 3600 a, 3600 b and 3600 c differ slightly from one another. As the result, the dependency of SR intensity on channels of the image sensor occurs as shown in FIG. 3C .
- the longitudinal direction (channel direction) of an image sensor view field 3300 projected on the polarizing beam splitter 15 coincides with the direction of an incident illumination light beam 3100 .
- incident light rays reaching the individual positions (individual channels) of the image sensor view field have been incident on a reflection surface 3400 at the same incident angle, so that the polarization directions 3500 b, 3500 a and 3500 c in the center and at the opposite ends of the image sensor view field, respectively, are identical with one another.
- the dependency of SR intensity on channels of the image sensor does not occur as shown in FIG. 2C .
- FIG. 7 Another example of the optical system according to the invention is illustrated in FIG. 7 .
- an illumination light beam from the light source enters the polarizing beam splitter from above and a beam transmitting through it illuminates the specimen.
- a reflected beam from the specimen is reflected at the reflection surface of the polarizing beam splitter and led to the imaging optics.
- the longitudinal direction (channel direction) of image sensor view field projected on the polarizing beam splitter is substantially parallel to an optical path extending from the polarizing beam splitter and ending in the imaging optics.
- an illumination light ray illuminating the center of the image sensor view field and illumination light rays illuminating the opposite ends thereof have the same incident surface in relation to the reflection surface of the polarizing beam splitter, thereby ensuring that polarization directions of these illumination light rays on the image sensor view field can all be parallel to the longitudinal direction of the image sensor view field.
- the illumination characteristics have no dependency upon channels of the image sensor and the SR intensity does not sustain the dependency on channels.
- FIG. 5 Another embodiment of the visual inspection apparatus according to the invention is schematically illustrated in FIG. 5 .
- the apparatus shown in FIG. 5 differs from the visual inspection apparatus shown in FIG. 1 having the half waveplate 16 and quarter waveplate 17 arranged between the polarizing beam splitter 15 and objective lens 20 in that only a quarter waveplate 17 is interposed.
- the visual inspection apparatus constructed as shown in FIG. 1 is suitable for use with illumination by an elliptically polarized beam but the apparatus constructed as shown in FIG. 5 is effective when a circularly polarized beam is used for illumination.
- FIG. 6 Still another embodiment of the visual inspection apparatus according to the invention is schematically illustrated in FIG. 6 .
- the apparatus shown in FIG. 6 is also identical to the visual inspection apparatus having the half waveplate 16 and quarter waveplate 17 arranged between the polarizing beam splitter 15 and objective lens 20 , with the only exception that a half waveplate 16 alone is interposed.
- This visual inspection apparatus is effective when a linearly polarized beam is used for illumination.
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- Analytical Chemistry (AREA)
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- Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
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Abstract
An apparatus is provided which reduces the dependency of the direction of polarization on channels of an image sensor so as to improve the sensitivity of inspection. In the apparatus, the direction of an illumination beam incident on a polarizing beam splitter is made to be substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of a field of view of an image sensor projected on the polarizing beam splitter.
Description
- This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/262,826, filed on Nov. 1, 2005, claiming priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-320771, filed on Nov. 4, 2004, the entire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
- The present invention relates to an apparatus for visual inspection adapted to detect defects of a pattern to be inspected and more particularly, to a visual inspection apparatus used for inspecting pattern defects and foreign particles in the course of production of a semiconductor wafer, a photo-mask, a printed circuit board and so on.
- In visual inspection of a semiconductor wafer, a method is known as disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2000-155099, according to which when an illumination beam of rays of light is reflected on the surface of a specimen and an optical image of the specimen is formed by interference of a zero-order diffraction ray and higher-order diffraction rays of a reflected beam, the contrast of the optical image is improved to detect a defect of a fine wiring pattern formed on the specimen with high sensitivity. A basic construction of an optical system used for the method is shown in
FIG. 4 . A beam of light emitted from alight source 8 reaches anaperture stop 11 through a concave mirror andlens 9 and then is rendered to be incident on a polarizingbeam splitter 15 by way of a lens, a band-pass filter 12 and afield stop 13. The beam transmits through the polarizingbeam splitter 15 and a resultant linearly polarized light beam leaving the splitter passes through ahalf waveplate 16 and aquarter waveplate 17 so as to be converted into an elliptically polarized light which in turn is irradiated on aspecimen 1 by means of anobjective lens 20. The direction of major axis of the elliptically polarized light can be controlled by rotating thequarter waveplate 17 and the ellipticity of the elliptically polarized light can be controlled by rotating thehalf waveplate 16. A beam of light reflected from thespecimen 1 also enters the polarizingbeam splitter 15 via theobjective lens 20,quarter waveplate 17 andhalf waveplate 16 and then only an S-polarised component is reflected and led to an imaging optics comprised of animaging lens 30 and azoom lens 50. The optical image of thespecimen 1 is formed on animage sensor 70. Then the image is converted to image data and defects are detected by processing the image data. - When, in this imaging optics, angles of the two waveplates are settled such that the
specimen 1 is illuminated with a circularly polarized light, only a component having its polarization state unchanged during the reflection on the specimen surface is reflected at the polarizingbeam splitter 15 and led to the imaging optics. On the other hand, when angles of the two waveplates are settled such that thespecimen 1 is illuminated with an elliptically polarized light, part of a component having its polarization state changed during the reflection on thespecimen 1 is also reflected at the polarizingbeam splitter 15 and led to the imaging optics. Generally speaking, a beam of light rays diffracted by a linear pattern sometimes changes its polarization state but a zero-order ray does not change its polarization state. Accordingly, by illuminating the elliptically polarized light, the diffracted light component can be emphasized and then led to the imaging optics. - Hereinafter, the degree of emphasis of a diffracted beam attributable to the elliptically polarized light illumination will be called an SR intensity. The
image sensor 70 is constructed of groups of pixels and typically, individual groups are called channels. For example, all the pixels on the sensor are divided into 32 or 64 channels. - The SR intensity has dependency on channels of the image sensor. Accordingly, under one illumination condition, the sensitivity differs between channels and therefore the condition is settled by a value of average sensitivity. In order to improve the inspection sensitivity, the difference in sensitivity between channels of the image sensor needs to be reduced.
- An object of the present invention is to realize an optical system capable of improving the inspection sensitivity by reducing the dependency of the SR intensity upon channels on the image sensor.
- It has been found out that the direction of incidence of an incident light on the polarizing beam splitter has relation to the dependency of the SR intensity upon channels.
FIGS. 3A and 3B are useful to explain how the direction of the incident light, the reflection surface of polarizing beam splitter and the shape of a field of view of image sensor projected on the polarizing beam splitter are related to one another in the conventional visual inspection apparatus. The direction of anincident illumination light 3100 is substantially vertical to the longitudinal direction of the field of view of the image sensor, 3300, which is projected on the polarizingbeam splitter 15. Because of the substantial verticalness of the direction of the incident light to the longitudinal direction of the field of view of image sensor projected on the polarizing beam splitter, the incident angle shifts more largely at longitudinal ends than in the center portion and the direction of polarization of the reflected illumination light beam shifts. Since the longitudinal direction of oblong shape of the image sensor corresponds to the channel direction of the aforementioned 1 to 32 or 1 to 64 channels, the dependency on channels is caused as described previously. - In the present invention, an optical system arrangement is adopted in which the direction of an incident light beam on the polarizing beam splitter is so adjusted as to be substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of a substantially oblong-shaped view field of the image sensor projected on the polarizing beam splitter.
- According to the present invention, since the dependency of the direction of polarization on channels of the image sensor can be reduced, the polarization direction can be optimized easily and a reduction in sensitivity depending on channels can be obviated, with the result that the defect detection sensitivity can be improved as a whole.
- Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
-
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of a visual inspection apparatus according to the present invention. -
FIG. 2A is a top view showing an example of an optical system layout according to the invention in top view form. -
FIG. 2B is a side view showing an example of an optical system layout according to the invention. -
FIG. 2C is a graph for explaining effect of the optical system layout. -
FIG. 3A is a top view showing an optical system layout according to the prior art. -
FIG. 3B is a side view showing an optical system layout according to the prior art. -
FIG. 3C is a graph for explaining effect of the conventional optical system layout. -
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of construction of an optical system of conventional visual inspection apparatus. -
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing another embodiment of the visual inspection apparatus according to the invention. -
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing still another embodiment of the visual inspection apparatus according the invention. -
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another example of the optical system layout according to the invention. - Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
- In an embodiment of an apparatus for visual inspection according to the present invention as schematically illustrated in
FIG. 1 , aspecimen 1 is chucked on astage 101 and is movable to optimum positions as necessary in rotating direction, X direction, Y direction and height direction, respectively. A beam of light rays emitted from alight source 8 reaches a polarizingbeam splitter 15 by way of midwaymirror 200, sharp-cut filter 300,lens 9, cone lens 700, diffuser 800,ND filter 900, band-pass filter 12 and opening ofaperture stop 11. The beam transmits through the filter and a resultant linearly polarized light leaving the polarizingbeam splitter 15 travels through ahalf waveplate 16 and aquarter waveplate 17 so as to be converted into an elliptically polarized light which in turn is irradiated on thespecimen 1 by means of anobjective lens 20. The direction of major axis of the elliptical polarization can be controlled by rotating thequarter waveplate 17 and the ellipticity of the elliptical polarization can be controlled by rotating thehalf waveplate 16. - A beam of light reflected from the
specimen 1 enters the polarizingbeam splitter 15 via theobjective lens 20,quarter waveplate 17 andhalf waveplate 16 and only an S-polarized component is reflected, thus traveling through animaging lens 30 to form an image of thespecimen 1 on the light receiving surface of animage sensor 2000. Used as theimage sensor 2000 is, for example, a linear sensor or a TDI image sensor. Part of the light beam reflected from thespecimen 1 and then reflected from the polarizingbeam splitter 15 is separated by means of abeam splitter 1800 and led to an auto-focus system 2100, being used for controlling the specimen in the height direction. - A mercury lamp or a xenon lamp may be used as the
light source 8 but with a laser beam source used, a highly intensive photo-output can be obtained in the DUV (Deep Ultra Violet) range. - The
image sensor 2000 referred to herein is a TDI image sensor having its light receiving surface constructed of 256×4096 CCD's and taking a rectangular form sized to 3.3 mm×53.2 mm. Further, in the direction of 4096 pixels, the 4096 pixels are divided into, for example, 64 channels. Accordingly, in the present embodiment, the TDI image sensor has 64 channels in the longitudinal direction of the rectangular form. InFIG. 1 , theimage sensor 2000 is arranged in such a manner that its longitudinal direction coincides with the right and left direction on the sheet of drawing and therefore, the image sensor has its field of view, which is projected on thepolarizing beam splitter 15, in the horizontal direction on the sheet of drawing. Since the direction of optical path from thepolarizing beam splitter 15 toward the imaging optics is horizontal on the sheet of drawing in theFIG. 1 , these directions coincide with each other. - In the visual inspection apparatus of the invention, the polarizing beam splitter, image sensor view field shape, incident beam and reflection beam are related to one another as schematically illustrated in
FIGS. 2A and 2B . In the prior art, like relationship is held as schematically illustrated inFIGS. 3A and 3B .FIGS. 2A and 3A are top views andFIGS. 2B and 3B are side views. Effects of the present invention will be described by making reference to these Figures. - Firstly, the conventional optical system will be described. In
FIG. 3A , anincident light beam 3100 enters thepolarizing beam splitter 15 horizontally in the left to right direction. As illustrated, the imagesensor view field 3300 projected on thepolarizing beam splitter 15 has its longitudinal direction (channel direction) coincident with the vertical direction. Areflection surface 3400 of the polarizing beam splitter is related to areflection beam 3200 as shown inFIG. 3B .FIG. 3A shows a direction of polarization in the central part of the image sensor view field, 3600 b, and directions of polarization at the ends of the image sensor view field, 3600 a and 3600 c. Incident light rays reaching the individual positions (individual channels) of the image sensor view field have been incident on thereflection surface 3400 at different angles, so that thepolarization directions FIG. 3C . - Next, an optical system of the present invention will be described. In an layout of the invention as shown in
FIG. 2A , the longitudinal direction (channel direction) of an imagesensor view field 3300 projected on thepolarizing beam splitter 15 coincides with the direction of an incidentillumination light beam 3100. With this construction, incident light rays reaching the individual positions (individual channels) of the image sensor view field have been incident on areflection surface 3400 at the same incident angle, so that thepolarization directions FIG. 2C . - Another example of the optical system according to the invention is illustrated in
FIG. 7 . In this example, an illumination light beam from the light source enters the polarizing beam splitter from above and a beam transmitting through it illuminates the specimen. A reflected beam from the specimen is reflected at the reflection surface of the polarizing beam splitter and led to the imaging optics. In this layout, the longitudinal direction (channel direction) of image sensor view field projected on the polarizing beam splitter is substantially parallel to an optical path extending from the polarizing beam splitter and ending in the imaging optics. With this construction, an illumination light ray illuminating the center of the image sensor view field and illumination light rays illuminating the opposite ends thereof have the same incident surface in relation to the reflection surface of the polarizing beam splitter, thereby ensuring that polarization directions of these illumination light rays on the image sensor view field can all be parallel to the longitudinal direction of the image sensor view field. As a result, the illumination characteristics have no dependency upon channels of the image sensor and the SR intensity does not sustain the dependency on channels. - Another embodiment of the visual inspection apparatus according to the invention is schematically illustrated in
FIG. 5 . The apparatus shown inFIG. 5 differs from the visual inspection apparatus shown inFIG. 1 having the half waveplate 16 andquarter waveplate 17 arranged between thepolarizing beam splitter 15 andobjective lens 20 in that only aquarter waveplate 17 is interposed. The visual inspection apparatus constructed as shown inFIG. 1 is suitable for use with illumination by an elliptically polarized beam but the apparatus constructed as shown inFIG. 5 is effective when a circularly polarized beam is used for illumination. - Still another embodiment of the visual inspection apparatus according to the invention is schematically illustrated in
FIG. 6 . The apparatus shown inFIG. 6 is also identical to the visual inspection apparatus having the half waveplate 16 andquarter waveplate 17 arranged between thepolarizing beam splitter 15 andobjective lens 20, with the only exception that ahalf waveplate 16 alone is interposed. This visual inspection apparatus is effective when a linearly polarized beam is used for illumination. - It should be further understood by those skilled in the art that although the foregoing description has been made on embodiments of the invention, the invention is not limited thereto and various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.
Claims (2)
1. A visual inspection apparatus comprising:
a specimen stage for holding a specimen;
a light source;
a polarizing beam splitter;
an objective lens;
a quarter waveplate arranged between said polarizing beam splitter and objective lens;
an imaging optics; and
an image sensor, an illumination beam of light rays emitted from said light source being irradiated on the specimen held by said specimen stage via said polarizing beam splitter, quarter waveplate and objective lens and a reflection beam from said specimen being led to said imaging optics by way of said objective lens, quarter waveplate and polarizing beam splitter so as to be imaged on said image sensor,
wherein the illumination beam from said light source is rendered to be incident on said polarizing beam splitter in an incident direction which is substantially parallel to a channel direction of a field of view of said image sensor projected on said polarizing beam splitter, or the direction of an optical path extending from said polarizing beam splitter toward said imaging optics and ending in said imaging optical system is substantially parallel to said channel direction.
2-6. (canceled)
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US12/898,255 US20110019200A1 (en) | 2004-11-04 | 2010-10-05 | Apparatus for visual inspection |
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JP2004-320771 | 2004-11-04 | ||
JP2004320771A JP4485910B2 (en) | 2004-11-04 | 2004-11-04 | Appearance inspection device |
US11/262,826 US7821644B2 (en) | 2004-11-04 | 2005-11-01 | Apparatus for visual inspection |
US12/898,255 US20110019200A1 (en) | 2004-11-04 | 2010-10-05 | Apparatus for visual inspection |
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US11/262,826 Continuation US7821644B2 (en) | 2004-11-04 | 2005-11-01 | Apparatus for visual inspection |
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US20110019200A1 true US20110019200A1 (en) | 2011-01-27 |
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US12/898,255 Abandoned US20110019200A1 (en) | 2004-11-04 | 2010-10-05 | Apparatus for visual inspection |
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US8804111B2 (en) * | 2007-10-04 | 2014-08-12 | Kla-Tencor Corporation | Multichip CCD camera inspection system |
USD786935S1 (en) | 2015-11-20 | 2017-05-16 | Baldwin Filters, Inc. | Filter element |
CN105334230A (en) * | 2015-11-26 | 2016-02-17 | 凌云光技术集团有限责任公司 | Light source devices for detecting hole defect of high-depth-ratio PCB (printed circuit board) |
JP6587264B1 (en) * | 2018-12-11 | 2019-10-09 | レーザーテック株式会社 | Mask inspection apparatus, switching method and mask inspection method |
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2004
- 2004-11-04 JP JP2004320771A patent/JP4485910B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
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- 2005-11-01 US US11/262,826 patent/US7821644B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
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2010
- 2010-10-05 US US12/898,255 patent/US20110019200A1/en not_active Abandoned
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US6690469B1 (en) * | 1998-09-18 | 2004-02-10 | Hitachi, Ltd. | Method and apparatus for observing and inspecting defects |
US20040150821A1 (en) * | 1998-09-18 | 2004-08-05 | Hitachi, Ltd | Method and apparatus for observing and inspecting defects |
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Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
JP4485910B2 (en) | 2010-06-23 |
US20060092426A1 (en) | 2006-05-04 |
US7821644B2 (en) | 2010-10-26 |
JP2006133026A (en) | 2006-05-25 |
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