Abstract: There is provided a method of defect detection on a specimen and a system thereof. The method includes: obtaining a runtime image representative of at least a portion of the specimen; processing the runtime image using a supervised model to obtain a first output indicative of the estimated presence of first defects on the runtime image; processing the runtime image using an unsupervised model component to obtain a second output indicative of the estimated presence of second defects on the runtime image; and combining the first output and the second output using one or more optimized parameters to obtain a defect detection result of the specimen.

Abstract: There is provided a method and a system configured to obtain an image of a one or more first areas of a semiconductor specimen acquired by an examination tool, determine data Datt informative of defectivity in the one or more first areas, determine one or more second areas of the semiconductor specimen for which presence of a defect is suspected based at least on an evolution of Datt, or of data correlated to Datt, in the one or more first areas, and select the one or more second areas for inspection by the examination tool.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system, method and computer readable medium for selecting a coreset of potential defects for estimating expected defects of interest. An example method includes obtaining a plurality of defects of interest (DOIs) and false alarms (FAs) from a review subset selected from a group of potential defects received from an inspection tool. The method further includes generating a representative subset of the group of potential defects. The representative subset includes potential defects selected in accordance with a distribution of the group of potential defects within an attribute space. The method further includes, upon training a classifier using data informative of the attribute values of the DOIs, the potential defects of the representative subset, and respective indications thereof as DOIs or FAs, applying the classifier to at least some of the potential defects to obtain an estimation of a number of expected DOIs in the specimen.

Abstract: A method that includes performing multiple test iterations to provide multiple test results; and processing the multiple test results to provide estimates of a conductivity of each of the multiple bottoms segments. The multiple test iterations includes repeating, for each bottom segment of the multiple bottom segments, the steps of: (a) illuminating the bottom segment by a charging electron beam; wherein electrons emitted from the bottom segment due to the illuminating are prevented from exiting the hole; (b) irradiating, by a probing electron beam, an area of an upper surface of the dielectric medium; (c) collecting electrons emitted from the area of the upper surface as a result of the irradiation of the area by the probing electron beam to provide collected electrons; and (d) determining an energy of at least one of the collected electrons to provide a test result.

Abstract: A particle-optical arrangement comprises a charged-particle source for generating a beam of charged particles; a multi-aperture plate arranged in a beam path of the beam of charged particles, wherein the multi-aperture plate has a plurality of apertures formed therein in a predetermined first array pattern, wherein a plurality of charged-particle beamlets is formed from the beam of charged particles downstream of the multi-aperture plate, and wherein a plurality of beam spots is formed in an image plane of the apparatus by the plurality of beamlets, the plurality of beam spots being arranged in a second array pattern; and a particle-optical element for manipulating the beam of charged particles and/or the plurality of beamlets; wherein the first array pattern has a first pattern regularity in a first direction, and the second array pattern has a second pattern regularity in a second direction electron-optically corresponding to the first direction, and wherein the second regularity is higher than the first re

Abstract: A method for defect detection includes: (i) scanning at least one wafer by a monitoring system and providing defect size information for each defect that belongs to a group of defects; (ii) scanning the at least one wafer by a wafer inspection system that includes multiple detectors and providing a set of defect detection signals for each defect of the group, wherein the wafer inspection system is characterized by lower resolution than the monitoring system; (iii) classifying the defects to defect classes; (iv) determining multiple relationships between defect types, defect sizes and sets of detection signals; (v) scanning a second wafer by the wafer inspection tool; and (vi) generating, for multiple defects, second wafer defect size information in response to the determined relationships and in response to multiple sets of detection signals generated during the scanning of the second wafer.

Abstract: A printer and method for recording a predefined multiple intensity level image on a substrate, the method includes the steps of: converting the predetermined image to multiple intensity level associated images; converting a light beam to multiple light beam arrays; modulating each light beam array to provide modulated light beam arrays, in response to a corresponding intensity level associated image to be recorded on the substrate; directing each modulated light beam array to impinge on the substrate; and repeating the steps of converting, modulating and directing while moving the substrate until the predefined image is imaged on the substrate.