An apparatus includes a main body, circuit assembly, lens, and clamping assembly. The main body includes an aperture that receives a wafer configured to receive a sample under study. The main body is configured to support the circuit assembly, which includes illumination sources that emit light of different colors such that total internal reflection is generated in the wafer. The main body is configured to provide support for the lens, and the clamping assembly mechanically coupled to the main body such that the lens is selectively positionable with respect to a camera lens. A microscopy imaging apparatus includes an illumination source, wafer, and charge-coupled device. The illumination source is configured to emit white light such that total internal reflection is generated in the wafer. The sample under study is disposed between the wafer and the charge coupled device, and the charge coupled device is configured to obtain an image of the sample under study upon illumination of the wafer by the illumination source.

Systems and methods for monitoring copper corrosion in an integrated circuit (IC) device are disclosed. A corrosion-sensitive structure formed in the IC device may include a p-type active region adjacent an n-type active region to define a p-n junction space charge region. A copper region formed over the silicon may be connected to both the p-region and n-region by respective contacts, to thereby define a short circuit. Light incident on the p-n junction space charge region, e.g., during a CMP process, creates a current flow through the metal region via the short circuit, which drives chemical reactions that cause corrosion in the copper region. Due to the short circuit configuration, the copper region is highly sensitive to corrosion. The corrosion-sensitive structure may be arranged with less corrosion-sensitive copper structures in the IC device, with the corrosion-sensitive structure used as a proxy to monitor for copper corrosion in the IC device.

This disclosure relates generally to a system and method for monitoring performance of low-cost sensors plied in a field for soil moisture measurement. The low-cost sensors are calibrated to give useful derived parameters to support farming such as volumetric water content (VWC) of the soil. Further, the steps are being incorporated to de-noise their response to derive stable measurements similar to expensive rugged sensors. The calibration of the low-cost sensor and normalization of incoming values from the low-cost sensor are based on values determined through rugged sensors for soil moisture measurement. The normalization involves finding a minimum value and maximum value of soil moisture. Performance of the low-cost sensors are analyzed based on a range of values of the soil moisture. Finally, the performance analysis provides degradation stages and based on the degradation stages evaluated recommendations to modify the sensor are shared with the user.

Methods and systems for measuring semiconductor structures based on a trained scanning conditional measurement model are described herein. A scanning conditional model is trained based on Design Of Experiments (DOE) measurement data associated with known values of one or more parameters of interest and a set of perturbed values of the one or more parameters of interest. The trained conditional model minimizes the output of an error function characterizing the error between the known values of the perturbed values of the one or more parameters of interest for the given DOE measurement data. During inference, an error value associated with each candidate value of one or more parameters of interest is determined by the trained scanning conditional measurement model. The estimated value of the parameter of interest is the candidate value of the parameter of interest associated with the minimum error value.

In a method of inspection of a semiconductor substrate a first beam of light is split into two or more second beams of light. The two or more second beams of light are respectively transmitted onto a first set of two or more first locations on top of the semiconductor substrate. In response to the transmitted two or more second beams of light, two or more reflected beams of light from the first set of two or more first locations are received. The received two or more reflected beams of light are detected to generate two or more detected signals. The two or more detected signals are analyzed to determine whether a defect exists at the set of the two or more first locations.

A bump inspection device images a wafer that includes a plurality of bumps arranged in parallel to each other. Each of the bumps is elongated along a first direction that is along a substrate surface. The bump inspection device includes: a laser-light source that emits laser light in a direction that is inclined relative to the substrate surface; a camera that images the substrate surface onto which the laser light is emitted; and a direction adjusting portion that adjusts an arrangement relation between the direction in which the laser light is emitted and an orientation of the wafer to allow the first direction to become inclined relative to the direction in which the laser light is emitted, in a plan view. The camera images the wafer while the first direction is inclined relative to the direction in which the laser light is emitted, in a plan view.

Systems and methods for monitoring copper corrosion in an integrated circuit (IC) device are disclosed. A corrosion-sensitive structure formed in the IC device may include a p-type active region adjacent an n-type active region to define a p-n junction space charge region. A copper region formed over the silicon may be connected to both the p-region and n-region by respective contacts, to thereby define a short circuit. Light incident on the p-n junction space charge region, e.g., during a CMP process, creates a current flow through the metal region via the short circuit, which drives chemical reactions that cause corrosion in the copper region. Due to the short circuit configuration, the copper region is highly sensitive to corrosion. The corrosion-sensitive structure may be arranged with less corrosion-sensitive copper structures in the IC device, with the corrosion-sensitive structure used as a proxy to monitor for copper corrosion in the IC device.

An advance in high-resolution optical metrology has been achieved by the introduction of incoherent holographic imaging. FINCH, an example of incoherent holography, is shown to simplify the process, eliminating many steps in metrology and at the same time increasing throughput, resolution and accuracy of the method. A proposed technique requires only a single image capture with a non-moving camera rather than the capture of multiple stacks of images requiring many camera exposures and movement of the camera or sample in the conventional techniques.

An inspection device includes: an analyzer to calculate a parameter representing a feature of image data of an object having no defect by performing dimensionality reduction on the image data, and perform dimensionality reduction on image data of an object to be inspected by using the parameter; a restorer to generate restored data obtained by restoring the image data of the object to be inspected subjected to the dimensionality reduction; a corrector to filter the restored data by using a filter for correcting an error between the restored data and the image data of the object to be inspected, thereby generating corrected restored data; a determiner to output a determination result indicating whether the object to be inspected is defective, based on a difference of each pixel between the image data of the object to be inspected and the corrected restored data; and an interface to output the determination result.

A system and method for defect detection in a hole array on a substrate is disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method for defect detection in a hole array on a substrate, includes: scanning a substrate surface using at least one optical detector, generating at least one image of the substrate surface; and analyzing the at least one image to detect defects in the hole array on the substrate surface based on a set of predetermined criteria.