Abstract:
There is provided a pattern inspection apparatus that is capable of detecting a defect accurately and efficiently to inspect a pattern of a semiconductor device. The pattern inspection apparatus includes: a contour extraction means for extracting contour data of a pattern from a captured image of the semiconductor device; a non-linear part extraction means for extracting a non-linear part from the contour data; an angular part extraction means for extracting an angular part of a pattern from design data of the semiconductor device; and a defect detection section that compares a position of the non-linear part extracted by the non-linear part extraction section with a position of the angular part extracted by the angular part extraction section so as to detect a position of a defective part of a pattern.
Abstract:
An inspection apparatus performing template matching of a search image capable of outputting a correct matching position even if a pattern similar to a template exists in the search image is provided. The inspection apparatus includes a template cutout means for cutting out a template from a template selection image, a marginal similarity calculation means for calculating marginal similarity distribution information, which is a similarity distribution of the template selection image to the template, a search image similarity calculation part for calculating search image similarity distribution information, which is a similarity distribution of the search image to the template, a similarity distribution-to-similarity distribution similarity calculation means for calculating similarity distribution-to-similarity distribution similarity information between the marginal similarity distribution information and the search image similarity distribution information, and a matching position determination part for determining a matching position based on the similarity distribution-to-similarity distribution similarity.
Abstract:
A pattern data examination method and system capable of accurately and speedily examining a circuit pattern without failing to extract pattern contour data are provided. While pattern comparison is ordinarily made by using a secondary electron image, a contour of a pattern element is extracted by using a backscattered electron image said to be suitable for observation and examination of a three dimensional configuration of a pattern element, and pattern inspection is executed by using the extracted contour of the pattern element. More specifically, pattern inspection is executed by comparing a contour of a pattern element with design data such as CAD data to measure a difference between the contour and the data, and by computing, for example, the size of the circuit pattern element from the contour of a pattern. From two or more backscattered electron images formed by detecting backscattered electrons at two or more different spatial positions, pattern contour data contained in the backscattered electron images may be obtained.
Abstract:
A pattern matching apparatus comprising: means for storing photographed image data of a semiconductor device; means for storing CAD data of said semiconductor device; an information input means for inputting information on the white band width contained in said image data; a pattern extracting means for extracting a pattern on the semiconductor device from said image data by using the white band width information; and a matching means for matching said pattern with the CAD data.
Abstract:
Disclosed is a pattern matching method whereby a testing point can be searched accurately while simplifying the work of presetting. An image region of a part of a captured image is extracted, and a divided image of the image region is set as a template image. A pattern matching is performed by rotating the template image. Moreover, the pattern matching determines whether a point-symmetric pattern exists inside the image region.
Abstract:
It is an object of the present invention is to provide an image processing technique that can detect the rotation of an observation image of a specimen with high accuracy. An image processing apparatus according to the present invention indirectly corrects a rotation gap between measurement image data and reference image data through wide-angle image data including a measurement part of a specimen (FIG. 1).