公开(公告)号：US20250085234A1

公开(公告)日：2025-03-13

申请号：US18829227

申请日：2024-09-09

Applicant: PDF Solutions, Inc.

Inventor： Hans Eisenmann ,  Markus Rauscher ,  Christian Sendner

IPC: G01N21/95

Abstract: A vector e-beam machine for random defect inspection is disclosed. Contrary to traditional wisdom, it is shown that through a careful choice of target locations, vector machines can provide high-throughput and high coverage even when scanning for random defects. Additionally, by not wastefully scanning locations that provide no additional fault observability, charge accumulation on the wafer—a major concern in e-beam scanning—is reduced.
In a preferred embodiment, two approaches are combined: 1) Scan/target only at locations where a random failure can be observed. 2) From the defined list of observable locations, scan/target only the points which have the highest efficiency. Use of these and/or other disclosed techniques enables the scanner to target and evaluate a majority of the total observable defects in a single pass.