METHOD FOR INSPECTING EXPOSURE MASK PATTERN

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for inspecting exposure mask patterns for manufacturing semiconductor device which allows to more strictly determine the transfer behavior of defects directly from the mask image and to ease the specifications since the permissible defect size is derived more precisely. SOLUTION: Exposure transfer simulation is directly performed by using the inspection image of a mask pattern 2. There are provided: a step for creating the image data 3 of the mask pattern for exposure; a step 4 for determining, from these image data, the lower order terms of the diffracted light distribution obtained from the mask pattern for the exposure on the basis of information on the detecting optical system; and a step for determining the image intensity distribution obtained on the wafer by using transfer simulation in the optical system of an aligner 1 from the lower order terms of the determined diffracted light distribution. A pass/fail decision of inspection is performed by comparing the image intensity distribution with the above image data. A highly accurate judgment can be made by performing the exposure transfer simulation by directly using the inspection image of the mask pattern.