Abstract:
Disclosed is a wafer inspecting apparatus suitable to determine whether a scattering substance is a surface foreign matter or an internal defect even if the particle size of the scattering substance is smaller than the wavelength of irradiation rays used for inspection. The wafer is obliquely irradiated with irradiation rays at the Brewster angle, and scattered rays which are scattered from a scattering substance on or in the wafer are detected at and angle 0° and an angle of the Brewster angle or more by detectors. Then, it is determined whether the scattering substance is a surface foreign matter or an internal defect on the basis of a ratio between the intensities of the scattered rays detected by the detectors. The intensity of scattered rays which are scattered from a surface foreign matter and detected at an angle of the Brewster angle or more is larger than the intensity of scattered rays which are scattered from the foreign matter and detected at an angle 0°, and the intensity of scattered rays which are scattered from an internal defect and detected at an angle of the Brewster angle or more is smaller than the intensity of scattered rays which are scattered from the internal defect and detected at an angle 0°. This makes it possible to distinguish the surface foreign matter and the internal defect from each other.
Abstract:
A sample is supported flat in high precision by a sample chuck, and is easily mounted and dismounted.A wafer lifting mechanism is arranged in a position separated from a rotating system of a rotatable wafer chuck, and a wafer is lifted from a supporting surface by moving the wafer lifting mechanism upward to let pins penetrate through through holes of the wafer chuck under a state that the wafer chuck is stopped at a sample mounting-and-dismounting position.
Abstract:
In order to easily evaluate defects of the silicon wafer affecting the characteristic of a device, the present invention provides a defect inspection apparatus for detecting defects existing on a surface of a sample and/or inside the sample, which comprises a display apparatus for displaying a distribution of the defects on a graph having coordinate axes of distance from a central position of the sample and the depth where the defect exists based on the depth information and the positional information obtained by a detecting means.
Abstract:
Disclosed in a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) based inspection apparatus using an SQUID flux meter for detecting a small NMR signal, in which a receiving coil for receiving the NMR signal from an object is connected to a mixer, which mixes a reference high-frequency signal with the NMR signal so that the NMR signal is reduced to a low-frequency signal having a differential component of frequencies of both signals, and the low-frequency signal is applied to the input coil of the SQUID flux meter so that it is converted into a voltage signal. The mixer circuit includes Schottky diodes operative at a liquid helium temperature or Josephson junctions, and the portions of apparatus from the reception coil up to the SQUID flux meter are operated in a superconductive state at a liquid helium temperature.
Abstract:
An NMR imaging method which provides a three-dimensional image representative of the two-dimensional distribution of nuclear spin species resolved by chemical shift or the local spectra resolved by two-dimensional location. After the excitation of nuclear spins and the phase-encoding by application of a field gradient G.sub.y, a periodically inverting field gradient G.sub.x is generated to yield a continuous echo train. The echo train is sampled and separated into data of odd-numbered echoes and data of even-numbered echoes which data are in turn reconstructed into two-dimensional data arrays, respectively. The data thus reconstructed are three-dimensional Fourier-transformed.
Abstract:
An NMR imaging apparatus and method for detecting a nuclear spin resonance signal from an object, which is placed in a magnetic field, to produce images of the object. At an instant when the spins come into phase after the signal detection by a first spin excitation, RF magnetic field pulses are applied for rotating the direction of the spin to that opposite to the initial state. After that, the spin excitation and the signal direction of second time are conducted to measure the data which are different in the effect of the relaxation time from the first measurements. By repeating these sequences, it is possible to produce a plurality of images such as an intensity image or a relaxation time enhanced image.
Abstract:
An NMR imaging method and apparatus of the type in which a 180-degree RF pulse is applied to generate a spin echo after the selective excitation of a spin by a 90-degree RF pulse. A dummy gradient field, which has the same direction and intensity as those of a gradient field to be applied when the spin echo is observed, is applied between said 90-degree RF pulse and said 180-degree RF pulse so that the instant of starting the application of the gradient field for signal observation is advanced to the extent corresponding to said dummy gradient field.