Patent ID: 8781781

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for determining care areas for inspection, comprising: acquiring inspection results for a wafer generated by a first inspection process, wherein the first inspection process is performed on the wafer after a first fabrication step has been performed on the wafer and before a second fabrication step has been performed on the wafer; determining care areas for a second inspection process based on the inspection results generated by the first inspection process, wherein the second inspection process will be performed on the wafer after the second fabrication step has been performed on the wafer, wherein the inspection results generated by the first inspection process comprise locations on the wafer of noise events, marginal defects, and detected defects detected in the first inspection process, wherein the care areas for the second inspection process are determined such that the care areas include at least some of the locations on the wafer of at least some of the noise events the marginal defects, and the detected defects detected in the first inspection process, and wherein said acquiring and said determining are performed using a computer system; after the second fabrication step has been performed on the wafer, performing the second inspection process on the wafer using the determined care areas; and determining if a noise event, a marginal defect, or a detected defect included in the inspection results generated by the first inspection process correlates to a defect detected in the determined care areas by the second inspection process.