Abstract: Use of care areas in scanning electron microscopes or other review tools can provide improved sensitivity and throughput. A care area is received at a controller of a scanning electron microscope from, for example, an inspector tool. The inspector tool may be a broad band plasma tool. The care area is applied to a field of view of a scanning electron microscope image to identify at least one area of interest. Defects are detected only within the area of interest using the scanning electron microscope. The care areas can be design-based or some other type of care area. Use of care areas in SEM tools can provide improved sensitivity and throughput.

Abstract: Methods and systems for creating a sample of defects for a specimen are provided. One method includes detecting defects on a specimen based on output generated by a detector of an output acquisition subsystem. For the defects detected in an array region on the specimen, where the array region includes multiple array cell types, the method includes stacking information for the defects based on the multiple array cell types. The stacking includes overlaying design information for only a first of the multiple array cell types with the information for only the defects detected in the first of the multiple array cell types. In addition, the method includes selecting a portion of the detected defects based on results of the stacking thereby creating a sample of the detected defects.

Abstract: Methods and systems for creating a sample of defects for a specimen are provided. One method includes detecting defects on a specimen based on output generated by a detector of an output acquisition subsystem. For the defects detected in an array region on the specimen, where the array region includes multiple array cell types, the method includes stacking information for the defects based on the multiple array cell types. The stacking includes overlaying design information for only a first of the multiple array cell types with the information for only the defects detected in the first of the multiple array cell types. In addition, the method includes selecting a portion of the detected defects based on results of the stacking thereby creating a sample of the detected defects.

Abstract: Use of care areas in scanning electron microscopes or other review tools can provide improved sensitivity and throughput. A care area is received at a controller of a scanning electron microscope from, for example, an inspector tool. The inspector tool may be a broad band plasma tool. The care area is applied to a field of view of a scanning electron microscope image to identify at least one area of interest. Defects are detected only within the area of interest using the scanning electron microscope. The care areas can be design-based or some other type of care area. Use of care areas in SEM tools can provide improved sensitivity and throughput.

Abstract: A defect inspection system includes an inspection sub-system and a controller communicatively coupled to the detector. The inspection sub-system includes an illumination source configured to generate a beam of illumination, a set of illumination optics to direct the beam of illumination to a sample, and a detector configured to collect illumination emanating from the sample. The controller includes a memory device and one or more processors configured to execute program instructions. The controller is configured to determine one or more target patterns corresponding to one or more features on the sample, define one or more care areas on the sample based on the one or more target patterns and design data of the sample stored within the memory device of the controller, and identify one or more defects within the one or more care areas of the sample based on the illumination collected by the detector.

Abstract: Methods and systems for setting up a wafer inspection recipe are provided. Inspection results produced by complete wafer inspection recipe candidates, each of which includes one or more optical mode candidates with at least one set of defect detection parameters, are compared to determine which of the complete wafer inspection recipe candidates is the best for use as the wafer inspection recipe. The method does not involve making any decisions regarding performance of the complete wafer inspection recipe candidates until after the inspection results have been compared. In other words, the method does not involve selecting optical mode(s) that will be used in the wafer inspection recipe followed by selecting the defect detection parameters for the selected optical mode(s). In this manner, a greater number of optical mode and defect detection parameters can be considered in an efficient manner to determine the best wafer inspection recipe for any given wafer.

Abstract: Methods and systems for generating a defect sample for a wafer are provided. One method includes separating defects detected on a wafer into bins having diversity in values of a first set of one or more first attributes of the defects. The method also includes selecting, independently from one or more of the bins, defects within the bins based on diversity in a second set of one or more second attributes of the defects. The selected defects are then used to create a defect sample for the wafer. In this manner, defects having diverse values of multiple attributes can be easily selected.

Abstract: A defect inspection system includes an inspection sub-system and a controller communicatively coupled to the detector. The inspection sub-system includes an illumination source configured to generate a beam of illumination, a set of illumination optics to direct the beam of illumination to a sample, and a detector configured to collect illumination emanating from the sample. The controller includes a memory device and one or more processors configured to execute program instructions. The controller is configured to determine one or more target patterns corresponding to one or more features on the sample, define one or more care areas on the sample based on the one or more target patterns and design data of the sample stored within the memory device of the controller, and identify one or more defects within the one or more care areas of the sample based on the illumination collected by the detector.

Abstract: Methods and systems for generating a defect sample for a wafer are provided. One method includes separating defects detected on a wafer into bins having diversity in values of a first set of one or more first attributes of the defects. The method also includes selecting, independently from one or more of the bins, defects within the bins based on diversity in a second set of one or more second attributes of the defects. The selected defects are then used to create a defect sample for the wafer. In this manner, defects having diverse values of multiple attributes can be easily selected.

Abstract: Methods and systems for generating unbiased wafer defect samples are provided. One method includes selecting the defects detected by each of multiple scans performed on a wafer that have the most diversity in one or more defect attributes such that a diverse set of defects are selected across each scan. In addition, the method may include selecting the defects such that any defect that is selected and is common to two or more of the scans is not selected twice and any defects that are selected are diverse with respect to the common, selected defect. Furthermore, no sampling, binning, or classifying of the defects may be performed prior to selection of the defects such that the sampled defects are unbiased by any sampling, binning, or classifying method.