Method for inspecting substrate, substrate inspecting system and electron

Abstract

The present invention relates to a substrate inspection apparatus for inspecting a pattern formed on a substrate by irradiating a charged particle beam onto the substrate. The substrate inspection apparatus comprises: an electron beam apparatus including a charged particle beam source for emitting a charged particle beam, a primary optical system for irradiating the charged particle beam onto the substrate, a secondary optical system into which a secondary charged particle beam is introduced, the secondary charged particle beam being emitted from the substrate by an irradiation of the charged particle beam, a detection system for detecting the secondary charged particle beam introduced into said secondary optical system and outputting as an electric signal, and a process control system for processing and evaluating the electric signal; a stage unit for holding the substrate and moving the substrate relatively to said electron beam apparatus; a working chamber capable of shielding at least an upper region of the stage unit form outside to control under desired atmosphere; and a substrate load-unload mechanism for transferring the substrate into or out of the stage.

1 . An inspection apparatus which is arranged in the proximity to at least one processing apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device, the inspection apparatus evaluating a processed condition of a wafer after the wafer is processed by the processing apparatus, the inspection apparatus comprising:
 a primary optical system for scanning a surface of a sample by using a plurality of converged primary electron beams;   another optical system for accelerating, by an objective lens, secondary electron beams emitted from the sample, the another optical system separating the secondary electron beams from the primary optical system by an E×B separator to introduce the secondary electron beams into a secondary optical system, after the introducing, magnifying a spacing between the secondary electron beams by using at least one stage lens, and introducing the secondary electron beams to secondary electron detectors whose number corresponds to that of the primary electron beams; and   an evaluation condition setter for setting an evaluation condition such that the processed condition of each wafer should be evaluated within a processing time necessary for processing one wafer by a processing unit.   
   
   
       2 . The inspection apparatus of  claim 1 , in which the evaluation condition setter comprises a setter for setting an evaluation area of the wafer such that the processed condition should be evaluated only in a specified area on a wafer surface. 
   
   
       3 . An inspection apparatus which is arranged in proximity to at least one processing apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device, the inspection apparatus evaluating a processed condition of a wafer after the wafer is processed by the processing apparatus, the inspection apparatus comprising:
 a primary optical system for scanning a surface of a sample by using a plurality of converged primary electron beams;   another optical system for accelerating, by an objective lens, secondary electron beams emitted from the sample, the another optical system separating the secondary electron beams from the primary optical system by an E×B separator to introduce the secondary electron beams into a secondary optical system, after introducing, magnifying a spacing between the secondary electron beams by using at least one stage lens, and introducing the secondary electron beams to secondary electron detectors whose number corresponds to that of the primary electron beams; and   an evaluation condition setter for setting an evaluation condition such that a processed condition of one lot of wafers should be evaluated within a processing time necessary for processing one lot of wafers by the processing unit.   
   
   
       4 . The inspection apparatus in accordance with  claim 3 , in which the evaluation condition setter comprises a setter for setting an evaluation area of the wafer such that the processed condition should be evaluated only in a specified area on a wafer surface. 
   
   
       5 . An inspection apparatus which uses an electron beam, the apparatus comprising:
 an electron gun;   an irradiator for generating a plurality of primary electron beams from an electron beam emitted from the electron gun to irradiate the primary electron beams onto a wafer;   a plurality of secondary electron detectors for detecting secondary electron beams emitted from a plurality of regions of the wafer by irradiating the primary electron beams, to obtain a plurality of sub-image data; and   an image source for re-arranging the detected plurality of sub-image data to generate an image data of an inspection region on the wafer.   
   
   
       6 . The inspection apparatus of  claim 5 , the apparatus further comprising:
 a memory for storing in advance a reference image data with respect to the wafer to be evaluated; and   an evaluator for evaluating the wafer by comparing the image data generated by the image source with the reference image data stored in the memory.   
   
   
       7 . The inspection apparatus of  claim 6 , in which:
 a stage on which the wafer is placed is controlled so as to continuously move in the Y-axis direction;   the irradiator is configured such that respective primary electron beams are driven to simultaneously scan in the X-axis direction so that irradiation spots of a plurality of primary electron beams on the wafer are arranged with approximately equal spacing therebetween in the X-axis direction, and respective scanning regions may partially be superimposed on each other in the X-axis direction; and   the image source is configured such that while the sub-image data being re-arranged, the image data of the wafer surface is generated on the basis of the X and the Y coordinates of respective primary electron beams.   
   
   
       8 . The inspection apparatus in accordance with  claim 7 , in which:
 the image source is configured such that, with respect to areas overlapping in the X-axis direction, the image source determines a boundary between the sub-images of a pattern to be evaluated on the wafer so as not to cross the pattern, and that the image source generates the image data of the wafer surface.