Method and Apparatus for Inspecting Reticles

This invention relates to a laser scanning system for inspecting opposite surfaces of a flat workpiece and more particularly a low incident angle laser scanning system for inspecting opposite surfaces of a reticle mask to be used in the production of silicon microchips.

In the process of manufacturing silicon microchips, light is directed through a reticle mask to etch circuits into a silicon wafer disk. The presence of dirt, dust, smudges or other foreign matter on the surfaces of the reticle mask or the silicon water is highly undesirable and adversely affects the resulting circuits. As a result, the reticles and silicon wafers are necessarily inspected before use. One common inspection technique is for a human inspector to visually examine each surface under intense light and magnification. However, debris that is smaller than can be visually detected impairs the resulting microchips.

Laser surface inspection devices have been developed for inspecting the surface of silicon wafers to accurately detect small particles. Examples of such devices are disclosed in Alford et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,583 issued Mar. 15, 1983, and Moran U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,276 issued Dec. 16, 1986. In these known laser surface inspection systems, a laser beam is traversed across the surface of the silicon wafer and the reflections from the wafer are collected and analyzed to provide information about any debris present on the wafer surface. In the absence of debris, all of the light is specularly reflected from the surface. In locations where the beam strikes surface debris, the light is scattered. By separately collecting the scattered and specularly reflected light, the inspection device can accurately determine the surface conditions of silicon wafer disks.

However, such devices are not suitable for inspecting a reticle. The reticle has an extremely thin coating on the surface to form the masking. The edges of the coating tend to scatter light which causes spurious detections of foreign matter. The complexity of the circuits would cause the inspection device to determine that an otherwise clean reticle is saturated with debris. The use of such prior art devices is further unsuitable because only one side of the workpiece is inspected. Both sides of a reticle must be clean and therefore both sides need to be inspected.

In the present invention the aforementioned problems are solved by the provision of a laser inspection system that continuously and substantially simultaneously scans both sides of the reticle to detect surface contamination. The laser light beam is scanned across both surfaces at a relatively low angle so that the light scattered by the edge of the mask coating is minimized and only surface debris or contamination is detected. Inspecting both sides of the reticle at the same time minimizes handling, reduces the risk of subsequent contamination and minimizes the time required for inspection.

The laser scanning system in accordance with the present invention comprises a means for transporting a workpiece along a material path, a means for generating a laser light beam, a means for repeatedly scanning the laser light beam along a predetermined scan path, and means in the scan path for dividing the laser light beam into a first sweeping inspection scan oriented toward one side of the material path and a second sweeping inspection scan oriented toward the opposite side of the material path. The laser scanning system further comprises means to direct said first and second sweeping inspection scans at a low angle of incidence to the material path and collecting means adjacent the opposite sides the material path for collecting light reflected from the material path.

Additionally the system may be provided with a timing sensor and electronic control and analysis means to accurately locate and resolve any debris on the surfaces. The system may also be provided with an optical cell for forming the laser scan into a collimated, substantially parallel scan pattern.

Some of the aspects of the invention having been stated, others will appear as the description proceeds when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of the reticle inspection system;

FIG. 2 is a schematic end view of the inspection head taken substantially along the line 2--2 in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic side view of the inspection head taken substantially along the line 3--3 in FIG. 2;

With reference to FIG. 1, the reticle inspection system is generally indicated at 10. The system is preferably enclosed by a housing (shown in broken lines) and comprises a laser light generating means 21 such as a low wattage helium neon laser for generating a laser light beam B. The beam B is focused by lenses 23 and 25 to form a narrow spot beam. Mirrors 22 and 24 turn the beam B and direct it to a rotating polygonal mirror 26. The rotating mirror 26 causes the laser beam to repeatedly scan at high speed. The scanning laser beam is directed by a bounce mirror 33 to an optical cell generally indicated at 30 which includes a curved mirror 31 and a planar mirror 32. The curved mirror 31 and planar mirror are shaped and positioned so that the scanning laser light beam is reflected between each mirror a plurality of times before emerging from the cell. As a result of the consecutive reflections, the optical cell 30 converts the essentially radiating laser scan into a collimated, substantially parallel scan pattern The optical cell is discussed in Moran U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,276 which is incorporated by reference herein. In the illustrated embodiment, the rotating mirror 26 along with the optical cell 30 and the bounce mirrors 33 and 34 comprise a scan generating means.

The laser scan upon emerging from the optical cell is directed by a bounce mirror 34 to a scanning head, generally indicated at 15. At the scanning head, the laser beam moves along a predetermined scan path as indicated by the downwardly pointing arrow 35. Each successive scan begins at the top of the scan path and moves downwardly. At each point during the scan, the laser beam remains oriented substantially parallel to the orientation of the beam at each other point during the scan. The scanning head 15 comprises a pair of generally perpendicular dividing mirrors 16 and 17 which are positioned on opposite sides of a material path 12 and approximately 45.degree. thereto. The laser scan path is effectively divided by the dividing mirrors 16 and 17 such that during the upper portion of the scan path the beam is intercepted by the first dividing mirror 16 and forms a first sweeping inspection scan while during the lower portion of the scan path the beam is intercepted by the second dividing mirror 17 and forms a second sweeping inspection scan. The first sweeping inspection scan is oriented toward one side of the material path 12 and the second sweeping inspection scan toward the opposite side in a generally perpendicularly manner. A pair of low angle mirrors 18 and 19 are positioned on opposite sides of the material path, with the reflective surface directed away from the path and toward a respective one of the pair of dividing mirrors. Low angle mirror 18 receives the first sweeping inspection scan from dividing mirror 16 and reflects it at low angle to the surface of the workpiece 11. Similarly, low angle mirror 19 receives the second sweeping inspection scan and directs it towards the opposite side of workpiece 11. The low angle minimizes the light scattered by the mask coating on the reticle and is generally in the range of about 2.degree. to about 10.degree., but preferably about 5.degree.. The sweeping inspection scans define respective linear strike paths 48 and 49 on opposite surfaces of the workpiece as the scans sweep transversely across the workpiece. A suitable workpiece transport means 13, such as a conveyor or robotic arm, is provided on the material path for moving the workpiece past the strike paths so that each entire surface is scanned. It will thus be seen that during each downward sweep or scan of the laser beam along scan path 35, the laser inspection beam is caused to pass successively across the upper and lower surfaces of a workpiece positioned at the strike paths 48, 49.

The inspection of the surfaces is accomplished by collecting reflected light and analyzing it. In the preferred embodiment illustrated herein, only scattered light is collected, but it is understood that in certain instances it may be desirable to additionally collect specularly reflected light. The collecting means comprises lenses 40 and 41, fiber optic strands 42 and 43, and photodetectors 44 and 45 such as photomultiplier tubes. The lenses 40 and 41 collect light which is reflected from the surface and focus the reflected light into the ends of the fiber optic strands 42 and 43 which transmit the collected light to the photodetectors 44 and 45. The photodetectors 44 and 45 convert the light into electrical signals for the electronic control and analysis means 50. The reflected light indicates the presence of foreign matter or dirt on the surface and the intensity of the reflected light indicates the size of the dirt particle. As such, the electrical signals indicate the size of the dirt particles present. The electronic control and analysis means 50 includes a microprocessor programmed for processing the data received from the photomultiplier tubes to determine the surface condition of the workpiece. The positioning of the collecting means assists the inspection system in ignoring the masking layer on the surface of the reticle. The masking layer on the reticle is extremely thin (approximately 1,000 to 2,000 angstroms), and therefore reflects a neglible amount of light back towards the source of a low angle light beam. As such, the collecting lenses 40, 41 are located between the low angle mirrors 18 and 19 and the strike paths 48 and 49 as shown best in FIG. 3.

A timing sensor 20 is provided in the scan path to sense the instant the laser beam crosses the position of the sensor. The sensor 20 may comprise one or more photoelectric cells or light responsive electronic devices. The timing sensor 20 is preferably located at a point on the scan path between the lowermost portion of the upper dividing mirror 16 and the uppermost portion of the lower dividing mirror since this portion of the scan path is dead space, with no light being directed to either surface of the workpiece. However, the timing sensor 20 may be optionally provided at one end of the scan path. The electronic control and analysis means 50 uses the timing data to help interpret the reflected light data. For example, the timing signals provide the electronic control and analysis means 50 with the necessary information in conjunction with the reflected light data to locate the particles on the surface. The control and analysis means 50 keeps track of the number, location and sizes of the dirt particles for a subsequent decision to pass or fail the reticle. The timing sensor 20 can also be arranged to provide other information to the electronic control and analysis mean 50 such as the focus, the intensity and the alignment of the beam, etc.

In operation, as shown in FIG. 2, at the Start of Scan (SOS) the laser beam (shown in dark line) is received by the upper extended portion of the top dividing mirror 16. The laser beam is reflected down onto the top low angle mirror 18 which directs the laser beam at a low angle of incidence to the left edge of workpiece 11. As the laser beam moves across the laser scan path, the beam traverses across the reflective surfaces of mirror 16 and mirror 18 and across the top surface of workpiece 11. When the scan reaches the lower portion of mirror 16, the laser beam is directed onto the right edge of the top surface of the workpiece 11, and the top surface has completed one sweep of the inspection scan. The laser scan continues through a dead space between the lower portion of the upper dividing mirror 16 and the upper portion of lower dividing mirror 17. When the laser beam reaches the upper portion of the lower dividing mirror 17, the laser beam (now shown in broken lines) is directed to the low angle mirror 19 positioned below the material path 12, and reflected to the lower right edge of workpiece 11. As the scan progresses down the lower dividing mirror 17 the laser beam moves across the workpiece until it reaches the left edge of the workpiece 11. This is the end of the scan (EOS) and both sides of the reticle have had one sweep of the inspection scan. As the reticle is moved along the material path, the laser continuously scans across the surfaces, forming a series of adjacent parallel scans. Reflected light is continuously collected by said collecting means and the data therefrom is interpreted by the electronic control and analysis means 50.

In the drawings and specification, there has been set forth a preferred embodiment of the invention, and although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.