U.S. patent number 3,790,287 [Application Number 05/239,900] was granted by the patent office on 1974-02-05 for surface inspection with scanned focused light beams.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, Western Electric Company, Incorporated. Invention is credited to John David Cuthbert, Richard George McMahon, David Farnham Munro.
United States Patent |
3,790,287 |
Cuthbert , et al. |
February 5, 1974 |
SURFACE INSPECTION WITH SCANNED FOCUSED LIGHT BEAMS
Abstract
A surface inspection system uses a highly focused spot of light
moved rapidly over the surface to perform an inspection. This
permits a ready location of the defects, gives some indication as
to their size, and permits a high resolution inspection to be
performed in a relatively short time. An optical arrangement is
employed in which a scanned beam is brought back through the same
lens system used in generating the scan to produce an immobilized
return signal beam. A stop or spatial filter is used on the return
beam to permit only the light scattered from defects to reach a
detector.
Inventors: |
Cuthbert; John David
(Bethlehem, PA), McMahon; Richard George (Allentown, PA),
Munro; David Farnham (Wescoesville, PA) |
Assignee: |
Western Electric Company,
Incorporated (New York, NY)
Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated (Murray Hill,
NJ)
|
Family
ID: |
22904213 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/239,900 |
Filed: |
March 31, 1972 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
356/446;
356/237.1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G01N
21/8901 (20130101); G01N 21/9501 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G01N
21/89 (20060101); G01N 21/88 (20060101); G01n
021/16 () |
Field of
Search: |
;350/162SF,6,285
;356/120,167,200,209,210,237,129 ;250/219DF |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Sikes; William L.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Tribulski, Jr.; P. J. Housweart; G.
W.
Claims
1. In apparatus for inspecting an article having a reflecting
surface comprising:
means for producing a collimated input light beam;
beam focusing means positioned in the path of said input beam
between said beam producing means and said article; and
tiltable light-reflecting means positioned in the path of said beam
between said beam producing means and said focusing means for
scanning said input beam across said focusing means,
the improvement being that:
the reflecting means is positioned such that the axis of rotation
of the reflecting means intersects one focal point of the focusing
means; and
means are included for positioning a portion of the surface to be
inspected at the opposite focal point of the focusing means with
said portion inclined sufficiently nearly normal to the optical
axis of the focusing means that light reflected from the surface of
the article passes through the focusing means and is reflected by
the reflecting means whereby said light reflected from said portion
becomes an immobilized, collimated
2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a spatial filter in
the path of said return beam for separating light which is
reflected specularly by
3. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising means for sensing
the scattered light separated by said filter and utilizing said
sensing to
4. Apparatus for inspecting an article whose surface reflects light
specularly except from imperfections which scatter light, said
apparatus comprising:
a source of a collimated input light beam;
a first planar mirror illuminated by said beam, said mirror being
placed at an angle to the beam path and having a portion of its
beam-illuminated area transmissive to said beam;
a second planar mirror illuminated by the portion of said input
beam transmitted by the first mirror, and tiltable with respect to
the beam path to produce scanning movement of the input beam as
reflected from said second mirror;
a focusing lens illuminated by the scanning input beam as reflected
from said second mirror, said focusing lens being positioned in the
optical path between said second mirror and said article
surface;
the second mirror being positioned such that its axis of rotation
intersects one focal point of the lens; and
means for positioning a portion of the surface of the article at
the opposite focal point of the lens with said portion inclined
sufficiently nearly normal to the optical axis of the focusing lens
that light reflected from said portion passes through the focusing
lens whereby there is produced a specular return beam reflected
from said surface and a region immediately surrounding said
specular return beam of scattered light reflected from
imperfections in said surface, said specular return beam and
surrounding region as reflected by said second mirror being
5. The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising:
a third mirror formed on the back of said first mirror and
illuminated by said return beam and surrounding region reflected by
said second mirror; and
spatial filtering means for selecting from said illumination of
said third mirror only said beam surrounding region composed of
scattered light
6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said focusing lens is
positioned relative to said mirrors so that said specular return
beam and surrounding region illuminate the third mirror along a
path displaced from the input beam path, and wherein said spatial
filter comprises a light stop in the
7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said focusing lens is
positioned relative to said mirrors so that said specular return
beam and surrounding region illuminate the third mirror along a
path substantially coaxial with the input beam path, and wherein
said spatial filter comprises a light reflecting annular portion of
said third mirror surrounding said beam
8. The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising:
means for producing a signal whenever said selected portion exceeds
a predetermined level; and
means for electronically counting said signals to obtain a
numerical value
9. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising:
means for producing a second signal from the portion of the input
beam reflected by said first mirror; and
means for utilizing said second signal to control the
first-mentioned signal so that a uniform sensitivity is maintained
in the presence of
10. The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising means for
producing a signal whenever said selected portion exceeds a
predetermined level;
means for scanning a cathode ray tube in a pattern coordinated with
the scanning of said article surface by said input beam; and
means for developing an image on said tube with said signals to
obtain a
11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising means for
electronically counting said signals to obtain a numerical value of
said imperfections.
12. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said article is the epitaxial
layer
13. The method of inspecting an article having a reflecting
surface, comprising the steps of:
producing a collimated input light beam;
focusing with focusing means said input beam upon the surface of
said article from a predetermined distance while simultaneously
defocusing and recollimating with the same focusing means light
specularly reflected from the surface;
reflectively scanning said beam before it is subjected to said
focusing, the center of said scanning being twice said distance
from said surface; and
positioning the article such that light reflected from said surface
is again subjected to said scanning reflection so as to become
thereafter an
14. The method of claim 13 further comprising spatially filtering
said return beam to separate light which is specularly reflected by
said surface from light which is reflected scattered by
imperfections in said
15. The method of claim 14 further comprising sensing the scattered
light separated by said filtering and utilizing said sensing to
produce an
16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:
producing a signal whenever said separated light exceeds a
predetermined level; and
counting said signals to obtain a numerical value of said
imperfections.
17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:
producing a signal whenever said separated light exceeds a
predetermined level; and
producing a visible pattern of said signals corresponding to the
pattern formed by said imperfections.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to methods and apparatus for optically
detecting defects in the surface of an article. The methods and
apparatus are particularly useful in the detection of
crystallographic defects in epitaxially formed layers of silicon
used in producing semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the thin film and silicon integrated circuit technologies there
has long been a need for automated inspection techniques.
Silicon wafers, either immediately before or immediately after
growth of an epitaxial layer, require extensive inspection. Before
epitaxial deposition, the smoothly polished surface must be free of
all dirt and particulate contamination. After the epitaxy step, the
surface must remain highly smooth and free of inclusions, stacking
faults, and other disruptions. If the density of defects on the
surface is too great either before or after epitaxy, later yields
will be very low, and overall processing costs high unless the poor
wafers are rejected.
Inspection is currently done by a human operator. A microscope
illuminator light is directed down toward the shiny surface of the
wafer, which is held in such a fashion that the specurlarly
reflected light just misses the operator's eye. Under these
conditions, small defects show up as glints of light on the
otherwise dark surface. The sensitivity of this technique is
perhaps somewhat amazing, for it appears that under good conditions
on a favorable wafer, defects as small as 2 microns can be seen
with the unaided eye. The results are highly dependent on a number
of factors, however, not all of which can readily controlled. The
physical parameters such as the intensity and type of light used,
background lighting, etc., can probably be adequately set and
monitored, but the subjective human judgment as to which wafers are
"good" and which are "bad" remains difficult to put under rigorous
control.
Several attempts have been made to augment or supplant visual
inspection of silicon wafers by automated techniques. One proposed
system used board area white light illumination of a rotating wafer
is conjunction with a photomultiplier to receive some of the
scattered light to obtain information relative to the orientation
and severity of crystallographic defects on epitaxial silicon.
Information on the total defect area was derived, but not the more
important and useful data on the number of defects, their
approximate size, and locations on the wafer.
Another system used laser illumination, a spatial filter, and a
vidicon/TV system for viewing defects. While this system provided
an excellent "picture" of the defect locations, it too had some
drawbacks. Lack of perfect flatness of the wafers introduced
difficulties, and the limited spatial resolution of the vidicon/TV
system necessitated observation of only a small area of the wafer
at any one time, so that a stepped field of view was required to
inspect a whole wafer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention, therefore, to provide an improved
system of inspection which will generate a quantitative measure of
the defects present on the surface of an article.
It is a further object of the invention, to provide such an
improved system which will measure extremely small defects.
It is still a further object of the invention, to provide a system
which will yield graphic as well as quantitative results from a
defect analysis.
These and other objects are achieved by providing a system for
inspecting the surface of an article wherein a light beam is
scanned across the surface of the article. A reflected main portion
of the beam is spatially filtered so that only reflected portions
of the beam, which are scattered by defects, are detected beyond
the spatial filter. A beam focusing lens is positioned at a point
that is midway between a beam scanning device and the article
surface, which is undergoing inspection. The lens has a focal
length equal to one-half the distance between the scanning device
and the surface. The result of the combination of elements is that
the returned beam is stationary and can be precisely controlled to
disclose extremely small defects. A counter and display system are
triggered by the detector to provide both a quantitative and
graphic display of the defects which are found.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Other objects and features of the present invention will be more
readily understood from the following detailed description of
specific embodiments thereof, when read in conjunction with the
appended drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective overall view of an inventive inspection
apparatus;
FIG. 2 is an illustration of an alternate optical arrangement of
the apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a control system for operating the
apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an automatic gain control system
of the apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of a non-inverting amplifier used in
the automatic gain control system of FIG. 4; and
FIGS. 6-11 are various graphical representations of interactions of
parameters within the automatic gain control system.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The invention will be described in connection with a technique for
inspecting a slice of single crystal silicon on which an epitaxial
layer of silicon has been formed. The silicon is used in the
manufacture of semiconductor devices. It is to be understood,
however, that the invention is broader than that disclosed in the
examples and has applicability to the inspection of many types of
surfaces.
GENERAL OPERATION
Referring now to FIG. 1, an expanded beam of laser light 20
emanates from a laser 22 and is deflected from a torsionally
oscillating mirror 24 toward a large lens 26, placed one focal
length away. A silicon wafer 28 to be inspected is placed one focal
length away from the lens 26. The oscillating mirror 24 and lens 26
combination serves to produce a normally incident, highly focused
spot of light which travels in a line scan back and forth over the
wafer 28. Movement of the wafer 28 in a direction perpendicular to
the line scan by a drive table 30, results in a complete coverage
of the surface to be inspected by an effective two-dimensional
raster of the focused spot.
The light reflected from the specular surface of the wafer 28 is
directed back up through the lens 26 and reflected off the
oscillating mirror 24 a second time as a return beam 32. If the
mirror 24 and wafer 28 are both at exactly one focal length from
the lens 26, this return beam 32 is completely immobilized even
though it originates from the moving spot scanning the surface 28.
In other words, this beam suffers no movement whatsoever as the
focused spot scans over the surface of the wafer 28.
It is extremely important to position the oscillating mirror 24,
the wafer 28 and the lens 26 so that the arrangement of focal
lengths specified above can be satisfied exactly. In order to
achieve accuracy in the desired positioning, the lens 26 is mounted
on an adjustable base 31. The vertical position of the lens 26 can
thus be very accurately controlled.
If the focused spot strikes a defect on the surface of the wafer
28, the light is scattered. The specular return beam 32 is
diminished in intensity, and the region of space immediately
surrounding the return beam has light scattered into it. It is more
advantageous, from a signal-to-noise point of view, to detect the
defect by this scattered light 33 than by a diminishment of the
intensity of the return beam 32.
The particular geometry employed in generating the scan beam 20 and
return beam 32 permits the incorporation of a novel feature to
accomplish this end. A "stop" or spatial filter 34 is placed to
intercept the return beam 32 after reflection from a mirror 36.
Some of the scattered light 33 surrounding this beam is imaged onto
a small detector 38. An electronic signal resulting from the defect
light 33 hitting the detector 38 is then processed to size, count
and locate the defect.
The laser light source 22 is a 3 mw He-Ne laser available from
Hughes Electron Dynamics Division of Torrence, Calif., as model
3076 H/R. A 10X beam expander is used to permit a more effective
utilization of the lens aperture and hence a more finely focused
spot. The use of a Carl Meyer F/1.5 135 mm lens as the focusing
lens 26 permits surfaces as large as 75 mm in diameter to be
inspected with a focused spot of 13 microns. This finely focused
spot permits defects as small as 2 microns in diameter to be
detected.
Most of the beam 20 passes through a hole 42 in the mirror 36 which
is aluminized on both front surfaces. The outer portion of the beam
20 which does not go through the hole is reflected at right angles
as beam 40 and focused onto a silicon photodiode 44. The signal
from this photodiode 44 is used to monitor the intensity of the
light from the laser 22, and to provide automatic gain compensation
(AGC) for small fluctuations in the laser light output.
The beam 10 is reflected from the oscillating mirror 24, which is
driven at approximately 100 hz by galvanometer drive 46 available
from General Scanning, Inc. of Watertown, Mass. as Model G-325. The
beam 10 is directed somewhat to one side of the optical axis down
into the lens 26.
The wafer 28 is placed flat at the focal plane of the lens 26 where
the cone of light is brought down nearly normal (but at a slight
angle) to a focus at the surface of the wafer. The specularly
reflected light and a portion of the scattered light is collected
by the lens 26 and recollimated to produce a return beam 32 which
emerges from the lens on the other side of the optic axis in such a
fashion as to strike the oscillating mirror 24 nearly adjacent to
the input beam 20. The displacement of beam 20 with respect to beam
32 is exaggerated in FIG. 1 for purposes of clarity.
The oscillating mirror 24 then directs the beam 32 back toward the
mirror 36, which in turn reflects the beam 32 over toward the
detector 38. The specular component of the beam 32 is removed by
the physical stop 34 placed just in front of a simple lens 48 which
collects and focuses the scattered light 33 onto a low dark current
silicon photodiode detector 38. Voltage pulses from this diode
caused by flashes of light from the defects are processed in the
electronics package of the instrument.
In order to insure that the entire wafer 28 is scanned, the length
of the sweep must be somewhat greater than the diameter of the
wafer. As the focused spot sweeps over the edge of the wafer,
spurious counts are generated by the wafer edge and the machined
surface of the table 30. For a meaningful count to be generated,
these signals must be eliminated. This may be accomplished in one
of two ways.
The simpler approach involves positioning a mask 49 above the wafer
28 and attached to the table 30 to travel along with it. The mask
49 is slightly smaller than the wafer 28, and is at a position in
which the beam 20 is not well focused. This prevents spurious
counts from being generated.
A second approach involves the use of a third detector (not shown)
to sample the unscattered beam 32 reflected from the wafer 28 so
that the electronics can be activated only when the beam 20 is on
the wafer.
An alternative optical arrangement for detecting defects which
permits great utilization of the aperture of the lens 26 is
sketched in FIG. 2. The layout is substantially the same as in FIG.
1, except that the input beam 20 is centered on the optic axis of
the scan lens 26. This causes the scanning beam 20 to be incident
on the wafer 28 exactly normal, so that the return beam 32 follows
exactly the same path as the input beam. Thus, the return beam goes
back through the hole 42 in the mirror 36. The hole 42 in the
mirror 36 now serves as the spatial filter, since only the
scattered light 33 will strike the reflecting surface to be
directed to the signal detector 38. This configuration permits
scattered light from the entire aperture of the lens 26, minus the
area required by the input beam 20, to be directed to the defect
detector 38.
The arrangement of FIG. 1 sacrifices a second area equal to the
beam size in the collection of the scattered light. The primary
advantage of the scheme of FIG. 1 is that very little light is
directed back into the laser 22. The laser 22, therefore, produces
a more uniform output amplitude of the light.
Depending on the exact nature of the defects to be detected, one or
the other of the two schemes might enjoy a slight advantage.
ELECTRONICS
A block diagram of the electronics is shown in FIG. 3. The x-scan
is provided by the motor-driven table 30 of FIG. 1. The electronics
is programmed to control the table 30 and provide automatic
operation of the inspection procedure.
When a start button 50 is pressed, the table 30 is activated, and
the results from the previous run are erased from a large screen
storage oscilloscope display 52. A counter 54 is reset to zero. As
the wafer 28 is reached, the counting and display functions are
turned on, and the count is accumulated as the wafer is scanned.
The x-axis signal for the drive on the display is derived from a
linear potentiometer 55. At the end of the wafer 28, the table 30
is returned to the initial position for convenient loading of the
next wafer, while the display and count are held for leisurely
examination and recording.
The y-scan (mirror oscillation is derived from a master oscillator
56 which runs at a constant frequency and generates a sine wave. A
power amplifier 58 is used to generate the appropriate signal at
the proper impedance to drive the mirror galvanometer 46. The
y-deflection for the display 52 is derived from the same master
oscillator 56. The position of the electron beam in the display 52
must correspond to the position of the laser spot on the wafer 28.
Therefore, the phase shift introduced by the power amplifier 58 and
galvanometer 46 must be compensated for in driving the display 52.
In order to derive the retrace blanking for the display output, a
second phase shifter 59 is required.
The current signal from the photodiode of the detector 38 is
transformed into a voltage proportional to the light intensity in a
detector preamp 60. This signal is amplified in an automatic gain
control (AGC) amplifier 62 by a factor of 1.5 to 2.5. The gain of
this stage is adjusted according to the laser intensity in such a
manner as to provide for compensation of variations in the laser
output intensity. The signal from the AGC amplifier 62 is high-pass
filtered and given a further boost in amplitude.
A level detector 64 is used to select those voltage pulses
resulting from defects above a certain size. These shaped pulses
are then passed through a logic network 66 to perform retrace
blanking and pulse width selection. There are two outputs of the
logic network, and they are essentially identical. One pulse stream
is simply counted in the totalizing counter 54 to provide the
estimate of the total number of defects on the wafer. The second
group of pulses are used to turn on at the appropriate times the
z-axis of a storage oscilloscope display 52, such as that sold by
"Tektronix" under the trade designation "611." Therefore, as the
wafer is scanned, a picture of the defect locations is presented on
the display 52.
As an alternative to the defocusing mask 49, a spot position
monitor (SPM) channel 67 can be used to insure that defect signals
are processed only when the focused spot is on the surface of the
wafer 28. Signals at the wafer edge may still be counted as defects
if the SPM does not turn off fast enough. This problem is solved by
making the SPM delibrately slow. Only the first half of the wafer
28 is scanned on the "trace" portion of the sweep, with the
remaining portion being scanned on the retrace. In this way, there
is an automatic blanking performed for a short time immediately
after the beam comes onto the wafer, eliminating the edge
signals.
AUTOMATIC GAIN CONTROL
An automatic gain control (AGC) system shown in FIG. 4 is used to
cancel out the effect of variations in the output light intensity
of the laser 22. A portion of the laser beam is directed to the AGC
detector 44 via the mirror 36. The voltage derived from AGC diode
44 is ultimately used to control the overall gain of the signal
processing chain, so that accurate counts may still be obtained
even in the presence of laser intensity fluctuations.
The variable gain is achieved in the AGC amplifier 62 (see FIG. 5)
by varying the voltage on the gate of a field effect transistor
(FET) 70. The FET 70 has an "on resistance" vs. gate voltage curve
which is sketched in FIG. 6. Note that the resistance becomes
highly non-linear at low gate voltages, and tends toward very large
values. The gain of the AGC amplifier 62 is given by G = (R.sub.f +
R) /R.sub.f where R.sub.f is the "resistance" of the FET 70 and R
is the resistance of the feedback resistor 71. The gain as a
function of the resistance R.sub.f is also a non-linear function,
shown in FIG. 7. With the proper feedback resistor 71, these two
non-linear effects shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 cancel out over a limited
range, giving a region of linear control. An experimental curve of
DC gain vs. gate voltage is shown in FIG. 8.
A divider chain consisting of a 3 megohm resistor 72 and a 150,000
ohm resistor 74 on the imput of an operational amplifier 76
produces a constant 0.75 volt offset at both inputs 78 and 80. This
acts as a bias voltage across the FET 70. As the signal level
changes, this offset level shifts, producing changes in the
effective curve of "on resistance" vs. gate voltage for the FET 70.
A 0.01 .mu.f capacitor 82 in series with a 24,000 resistor 84
serves to correct for the non-linearities in the output signal
produced by these changes.
The control voltage for the gate of the FET 70 is derived from a
variable gain preamplifier 84, plus an inverting amplifier 86 with
a variable offset to control the operating portion of the curve for
the FET.
The desired operation of the AGC system can be set forth as
follows: For a given size defect, the output signal response should
be independent of the laser light intensity, over some finite
operating range. This is indicated in FIG. 9. There are a family of
curves of the variation of signal response as a function of the
gain and bias of the AGC preamplifier. These are shown in FIGS. 10
and 11. Naturally, the gain and bias must be adjusted to give an
operating characteristic which is like that shown in FIG. 9. This
is generally achieved with a bias voltage on the amplifier 86 (with
the amplifier 84 set to zero gain) of 5 to 6 volts, and with the
gain of amplifier 84 adjusted to bring the input of the FET 70 gate
back down to 3.5 to 4 volts.
Although certain embodiments of the invention have been shown in
the drawings and described in the specification, it is to be
understood that the invention is not limited thereto, is capable of
modification and can be arranged without departing from the spirit
and scope of the invention.
* * * * *