Patent ID: 6810139
Filing Date: 2004-10-26
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
Method for the analysis of patterned, semiconductor wafer having a plurality of dies thereon, which comprises providing at least one source of scanning beam, causing the beam and the wafer to move relatively to one another, sampling the light scattered by the wafer in a plurality of fixed directions, so as to obtain a plurality of pixels, each of said pixels having polar coordinates associated therewith, and transforming the polar coordinates of each suspected pixel to cartesian coordinates of the corresponding die,wherein the surface of the wafer is ideally divided into a number of zones, scanning beams are provided in a number equal to said number of zones, each scanning beam being associated with one of said zones, and the wafer is so moved that each beam scans the wafer zone associated with it, and the light produced by the response of the wafer surface to each beam is collected in a plurality of fixed directions associated with said beam.