Patent ID: 9714905
Date: 2017-07-25
CPC Classifications: G01N,G05B,H01L,Y02P

Claim:
1. A method for setting up a wafer inspection recipe, comprising: scanning a wafer with a wafer inspection tool and a number of optical mode candidates for the wafer inspection recipe thereby generating output for the wafer for each of the optical mode candidates; for a first of the optical mode candidates, applying different sets of defect detection parameters to the output generated with the first of the optical mode candidates thereby producing different inspection results for the first of the optical mode candidates, wherein the defect detection parameters are included in defect detection algorithms used with the output generated by scanning the wafer to generate the different inspection results for the wafer, and wherein at least some of the different sets of defect detection parameters are determined based on input from a user; storing the first of the optical mode candidates with each of the different sets of defect detection parameters as one or more of a number of complete wafer inspection recipe candidates; repeating the applying and storing steps for at least one other of the optical mode candidates; comparing the inspection results generated with the complete wafer inspection recipe candidates to each other, wherein no decisions regarding performance of the complete wafer inspection recipe candidates are made until after the comparing step is performed; determining which of the complete wafer inspection recipe candidates produced the inspection results that are the best based on results of said comparing; selecting the complete wafer inspection recipe candidate that produced the best inspection results for use as the wafer inspection recipe, wherein the applying, storing, comparing, determining, and selecting steps are performed with one or more computer systems; and comparing the inspection results generated with the complete wafer inspection recipe candidates to requirements for the inspection results received from the user and eliminating any of the complete wafer inspection recipe candidates that did not produce inspection results that meet the requirements from the determining and selecting steps.