Abstract

Automatic inspection of VLSI circuit patterns on photomasks and wafers is increasingly important as the minimum feature size decreases. Real-time inspection at the standard video rate is demanding because the volume of information in VLSI circuits patterns is enormously large. Similar to printed wiring board inspection[1], the goal of VLSI pattern inspection is not only to detect defects, but also to automatically interpret defects for patterning process analysis and control, which is essential to manufacturing automation. However, die-to-die or die-to-database comparison methods employed in most state-of-the-art VLSI pattern inspection systems have only defect detection capability. Simultaneous detection and classification of defects in real time has been challenging because of the complexity of computation required in statistical and syntactic classification methods[2]. We have developed a new approach based on template matching of local binary images with content-addressable memories (CAMs), which can easily be implemented in VLSI circuits because of its modularity and regularity. In a work reported previously[3], this approach was applied primarily to defect detection. Here we focus on its application to defect classification and its system implementation in VLSI circuits.

© 1987 Optical Society of America