Yoshimasa Oshima

Defect inspection on CMP process and its application

A high-throughput high-sensitivity defect-detection technique has been developed for manufacturing 0.15-0.25- micrometers LSI devices. It incorporates a high-resolution detection systems using multi-channel detectors and a high- resolution imaging system using spatial filtering and collimated focused-beam illumination. A new algorithm called correlated local area statistical threshold enables this technique to achieve a sensitivity of 0.15 micrometers on front- end processes and 0.3 micrometers on back-end processes and a high throughput.