Patent ID: 7379173
Filing Date: 2008-05-27
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A method for inspecting a semiconductor wafer specimen, comprising: brightfield illuminating said semiconductor wafer specimen using brightfield illumination by providing brightfield illumination through an objective configured to focus the brightfield illumination toward the semiconductor wafer specimen, causing brightfield illumination to pass back through the objective after contacting the semiconductor wafer specimen, and sensing brightfield illumination of said semiconductor wafer specimen using at least one CCD sensor; darkfield illuminating said semiconductor wafer specimen at selected times using a diode pumped YAG laser, wherein darkfield illumination received from the semiconductor wafer specimen passes through said objective, and sensing darkfield illumination of said semiconductor wafer specimen using the at least one CCD sensor; and assessing defects on said semiconductor wafer specimen using data from the brightfield illuminating and the darkfield illuminating of the semiconductor wafer specimen based on comparison of the data to expected semiconductor wafer specimen data; wherein inspection of the semiconductor wafer specimen using darkfield illumination employs a darkfield illuminator configured to provide darkfield illumination to a reflective surface orientable at different angles to reflect darkfield illumination toward the semiconductor wafer specimen at selectable illumination angles.