Patent ID: 6636824
Filing Date: 2003-10-21
Classification: G01R,H01L

Abstract:
A method of inspecting a semiconductor device, wherein one of semiconductor wafers each provided with a plurality of holes is mounted on a stage as a semiconductor wafer under inspection, and assuming that small regions obtained by sectioning a wafer surface of said semiconductor wafer under inspection into a plurality of regions are defined as inspection regions, each of said inspection regions is irradiated with charged particles from a charged-particle irradiation unit and a secondary electron image obtained by irradiation with said charged particles is observed, to inspect whether or not there occurs an opening failure in said holes inside each of said small regions,said method comprising the steps of: (a) inputting positional data on at least one specified small region to a control unit, said at least one specified small region being more likely to have said opening failure than the others of said small regions in said wafer surface; and (b) inspecting whether or not there occurs said opening failure in said at least one specified small region while said control unit relatively moves said charged-particle irradiation unit and said stage on a basis of said positional data so that said at least one specified small region is irradiated with said charged particles, wherein said step (a) includes the steps of: (a-1) inputting design data of said semiconductor wafers to an inspection-region determination unit; and (a-2) identifying said at least one specified small region on the basis of said design data by said inspection-region determination unit.