METHOD OF EXAMINING DEFECTS, WAFER SUBJECTED TO DEFECT EXAMINATION OR SEMICONDUCTOR ELEMENT MANUFACTURED USING THE WAFER, QUALITY CONTROL METHOD FOR WAFER OR SEMICONDUCTOR ELEMENT, AND DEFECT EXAMINING DEVICE

摘要

Light from a light source device (7) is polarized through a polarizer (8) and is caused to impinge obliquely onto an object (W) to be inspected. The resulting scattered light (SB) is received by a CCD imaging device (10) having an element (12) for separating scattered polarized light disposed in a dark field. Component light intensities are worked out for an obtained P-polarized component image and an obtained S-polarized component image and a polarization direction is determined as a ratio of them. The component light intensities and the polarization directions are determined from images obtained by imaging of the light scattering entities in a state where static stress is not applied to the object to tbe inspected and in a state where static load is applied thereto so as to generate tensional stress on the side irradiated by light. The component light intensities and the polarization directions are compared with predetermined threshold values. As a result, defects in the inspection object, such as internal deposits or cavity defects, foreign matter or scratches on the surface or cracks in the surface layer can be detected with high precision and the defects can be classified by identifying the type of the defect. By inspecting defects and executing quality control of a wafer for manufacturing semiconductor devices, noun-conforming products can be decreased to a great extent.