Method of inspecting circuit pattern and inspecting instrument

• Main Authors: Nozoe, Mari, Shinada, Hiroyuki, Watanabe, Kenji, Saiki, Keiichi, Sugimoto, Aritoshi, Morioka, Hiroshi, Tanaka, Maki, Miyai, Hiroshi
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 09.03.2004

The present invention relates to a manufacturing method and device of a board having a fine circuit pattern such as a semiconductor device or a liquid crystal and more particularly to a pattern inspection art of a semiconductor device and a photo mask such as a pattern inspection art on a wafer during the semiconductor device manufacturing process and a comparison inspection art using an electron beam. In order to obtain optimum irradiation conditions of an electron beam according to the material and structure of a circuit pattern to be inspected and the kind of a failure to be detected and inspect under the optimum conditions without delay of the inspection time, an inspection device for irradiating the electron beam to the sample board which is a sample, detecting generated secondary electrons by the detector , storing obtained signals sequentially in the storage, comparing the same pattern stored in the storage by the comparison calculation unit, and extracting a failure by comparing the predetermined threshold value with the comparison signal by the failure decision unit is provided, wherein the optimum value of the irradiation energy is stored in the data base inside the device beforehand according to the structure of a sample and a recommended value of the irradiation energy suited to inspection can be searched for by inputting or selecting the irradiation energy by a user or inputting information regarding the structure of an article to be inspected.