An image acquisition method includes storing a coefficient of a relational expression between a parameter corresponding to a light quantity incident on an imaging sensor including a photo sensor element and an output value of the imaging sensor in the case of the light incident on the imaging sensor which employs a reference image accumulation time, inputting a desired image accumulation time, and calculating a parameter for obtaining a desired output value of the imaging sensor by using a corrected relational expression obtained by correcting using an output value of the imaging sensor employing the desired image accumulation time in the case of the incident light quantity being zero, adjusting the light quantity incident on the imaging sensor to be a calculated parameter, and acquiring a target image by the imaging sensor on which an adjusted light quantity is incident, and outputting data of the acquired image.

A method of installing a glass panel on a vehicle that includes an opaque coating formed about a perimeter of the glass panel that includes a plurality of voids where the opaque coating is absent. The method includes determining whether a primer has been applied to the opaque coating by inspecting the glass panel to determine whether at least some of the plurality of voids have been covered by the primer. After determining whether a primer has been applied to the opaque coating, it is determined whether the primer has been correctly applied to the opaque coating by inspecting the glass panel to determine whether each of the plurality of voids has been covered by the primer. Then, after determining whether the primer has been correctly applied, an adhesive may be applied to the primer and the glass panel may be installed on the vehicle.

A measuring and calculating apparatus to measure and calculate a positional displacement amount of a pattern on a surface of a target object. The apparatus includes: a measuring unit to measure a first two-dimensional intensity distribution of a first diffracted light and a second two-dimensional intensity distribution of a second diffracted light; a storage unit to store a first and a second measurement data respectively indicating the first and the second two-dimensional intensity distribution; and an arithmetic unit to execute arithmetic processing using the first and the second measurement data to acquire difference data between the first and the second measurement data, and calculate a positional displacement amount of a difference pattern between the first and second patterns in accordance with the difference data.

Wafer-to-wafer and within-wafer image contrast variations can be identified and mitigated by extracting an image frame during recipe setup and then during runtime at the same location. Image contrast is determined for the two image frames. A ratio of the contrast for the two image frames can be used to determine contrast variations and focus variation.

A substrate inspection device for inspecting a substrate, includes: a setting part configured to define a group according to a basic state that is not dependent on a presence or absence of a defect in a substrate and set the defined group for each inspection target substrate; an inspection part configured to perform a defect inspection based on a captured image of the inspection target substrate and an inspection recipe corresponding to the defined group to which the inspection target substrate belongs and including a reference image; a recipe creation part configured to create the inspection recipe for each group; and a determination part configured to perform a determination as to whether a group-setting target substrate, for which the group is set by the setting part, belongs to the group defined by the setting part.

A printing solder point quality identification and maintenance suggestion system and a method thereof are disclosed. In the system, when solder paste inspection data, component inspection data or circuit inspection data indicates presence of defect, an analysis and calculation device intercepts the operating data, the equipment data, the raw material data, the process data and the environment data from a time data stream, to generate a data feature portrait. The analysis and calculation device then sets a reliability value based on location association between the solder paste inspection data, the component inspection data, the circuit inspection data and the maintenance data in the location data stream, and performs similarity calculation on the data feature portrait and the comparison data feature portrait to calculate a similarity value, and then calculates a relative reliability value, and compares the relative reliability value with a reliability threshold value to generate maintenance suggestion information.

The presently-disclosed technology enables real-time inspection of a multitude of subcomponents of a component in parallel. For example, the component may be a semiconductor package, and the subcomponents may include through-silicon vias. One embodiment relates to a method for inspecting multiple subcomponents of a component for defects, the method comprising, for each subcomponent undergoing defect detection: extracting a subcomponent image from image data of the component; computing a transformed feature vector from the subcomponent image; computing pairwise distances from the transformed feature vector to each transformed feature vector in a training set; determining a proximity metric using said pairwise distances; and comparing the proximity metric against a proximity threshold to detect a defect in the subcomponent. Another embodiment relates to a product manufactured using a disclosed method of inspecting multiple subcomponents of a component for defects. Other embodiments, aspects and features are also disclosed.

A photolithography method includes dispensing a first liquid onto a first target layer formed over a first wafer through a nozzle at a first distance from the first target layer; capturing an image of the first liquid on the first target layer; patterning the first target layer after capturing the image of the first liquid; comparing the captured image of the first liquid to a first reference image to generate a first comparison result; responsive to the first comparison result, positioning the nozzle and a second wafer such that the nozzle is at a second distance from a second target layer on the second wafer; dispensing a second liquid onto the second target layer formed over the second wafer through the nozzle at the second distance from the second target layer; and patterning the second target layer after dispensing the second liquid.

A pattern inspection apparatus includes a light source, a detector, and an inspection unit. The light source is configured to emit light toward an inspection target including stacked silicon substrates. The light has a wavelength band that is greater than or equal to 1.2 micrometers and less than or equal to 5.0 micrometers. The detector is configured to detect transmitted light of the inspection target or reflected light of the inspection target out of the light emitted from the light source. The transmitted light is light transmitted through the inspection target. The reflected light is light reflected by the inspection target. The inspection unit is configured to perform pattern inspection on the basis of a detection result obtained by the detector.

A method for inspecting a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure includes steps of: capturing a pattern of reflected light from an end face with a camera and generating an image data of the pattern of the reflected light; distinguishing positional information of each of cells adjacent to an outer peripheral side wall and cells that are not adjacent to the outer peripheral side wall based on the image data of the pattern of the reflected light, and storing the distinguished positional information in a memory; capturing a pattern of transmitted light from the end face with the camera and generating an image data of the pattern of the transmitted light; measuring intensity of each transmitted light from the cells adjacent to the outer peripheral side wall to detect the cells having defective plugged portions that are adjacent to the outer peripheral side wall based on the generated image data of the pattern of the transmitted light and the positional information; and measuring intensity of each transmitted light from the cells that are not adjacent to the outer peripheral side wall to detect the cells having defective plugged portions that are not adjacent to the outer peripheral side wall based on the generated image data of the pattern of the transmitted light and the positional information.