Wafer inspection using free-form care areas

摘要

Methods and systems for detecting defects on a wafer are provided. One method includes determining characteristics of care areas for a wafer based on wafer patterns. Determining the characteristics includes determining locations of care areas, identifying at least one pattern of interest (POI) in the wafer patterns for each of the care areas, allowing any of the care areas to have a free-form shape, allowing the care areas to be larger than frame images and selecting two or more POIs for at least one of the care areas. The method also includes searching for POIs in images generated for the wafer using an inspection system. In addition, the method includes detecting defects on the wafer by determining positions of the care areas in the images and applying one or more defect detection methods to the images based on the positions of the care areas in the images.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for detecting defects on a wafer, comprising:
determining characteristics of care areas for a wafer based on wafer patterns, wherein determining the characteristics comprises determining the care areas, identifying at least one pattern of interest in the wafer patterns for each of the care areas, allowing any of the care areas to have a free-form shape, selecting two or more patterns of interest for at least one of the care areas, and allowing any of the care areas to be larger than any frame image; searching for patterns of interest in images generated for the wafer using an inspection system; and detecting defects on the wafer by determining positions of the care areas in the images and applying one or more defect detection methods to the images based on the positions of the care areas in the images, wherein said determining, said searching, and said detecting are performed using one or more computer systems.