Patent ID: 7133549
Filing Date: 2006-11-07
Classification: G03F,G06T

Abstract:
1. A method of inspecting target patterns formed on a surface of a reticle used in manufacturing semiconductor devices, which method comprises: imaging the target patterns to produce a plurality of target data elements representative of the target patterns, each target data element associated with a respective location on the surface; receiving a plurality of reference data elements corresponding to substantially the same respective location on the surface as the target data elements; comparing the target data elements with the reference data elements to obtain differences between the target data elements and the corresponding reference data elements; calculating the sum of the largest negative magnitude of all the difference values and largest positive magnitude of all the difference values to produce a peak-to-peak difference comparing the peak-to-peak difference value with a threshold peak-to-peak difference value; disqualifying the reticle if the peak-to-peak difference value is greater than the threshold peak-to-peak difference value; storing all of the differences prior to mapping; and generating a graphical display map of substantially all the differences as a function of the locations on the surface associated with the target and the reference data elements from which each respective difference was obtained, wherein each of the differences is expressed as a positive value or a negative value; the patterns include pattern surfaces and edges, each target and reference data element represents at least one of a pattern surface and an edge of one of the patterns, and the comparing the target data elements step includes processing the target and reference data elements in a manner corresponding to a predetermined direction in the patterns to measure target and reference pattern widths between two edges; and the differences are differences between the corresponding target and reference pattern widths.