Abstract: A surface inspecting method includes: irradiating an incident light beam of a first polarized state on a target object, the incident light beam comprising parallel light and having a cross-sectional area: measuring a second polarized state of a reflected light beam reflected from the target object; and performing inspection on an entire area of the target object on which the incident light beam is irradiated, based on a variation between the first polarized state and the second polarized state.

Abstract: A method for detecting an overlay error includes: forming a first overlay key including a plurality of spaced apart first target patterns having a first pitch on a first layer of a substrate; forming a second overlay key including a plurality of spaced apart second target patterns having a second pitch different than the first pitch on a second layer of the substrate below the first layer; irradiating the first layer and the second layer with incident light having a first wavelength; obtaining a phase pattern of light reflected from the first layer and the second layer; calculating a position of a peak point or a valley point of the phase pattern of the reflected light; and detecting an overlay error of the first layer and the second layer using the position of the peak point or the valley point of the phase pattern.

Abstract: A method of inspecting a substrate includes irradiating light onto a substrate that has experienced a first process, obtaining spectral data of the light reflected from the substrate, detecting a defect region of the substrate from the spectral data, and extracting a first defect site that occurred in or during the first process from the defect region. Extracting the first defect site includes establishing an effective area where the first process affects the substrate, and extracting a superimposed area that is overlapped with the effective area from the defect region. The superimposed area is defined as the first defect site.

Abstract: A method for detecting an overlay error includes: forming a first overlay key including a plurality of spaced apart first target patterns having a first pitch on a first layer of a substrate; forming a second overlay key including a plurality of spaced apart second target patterns having a second pitch different than the first pitch on a second layer of the substrate below the first layer; irradiating the first layer and the second layer with incident light having a first wavelength; obtaining a phase pattern of light reflected from the first layer and the second layer; calculating a position of a peak point or a valley point of the phase pattern of the reflected light; and detecting an overlay error of the first layer and the second layer using the position of the peak point or the valley point of the phase pattern.

Abstract: A surface inspecting method includes: irradiating an incident light beam of a first polarized state on a target object, the incident light beam comprising parallel light and having a cross-sectional area: measuring a second polarized state of a reflected light beam reflected from the target object; and performing inspection on an entire area of the target object on which the incident light beam is irradiated, based on a variation between the first polarized state and the second polarized state.

Abstract: A vehicle discrimination apparatus specifies a vehicle area in which a vehicle is photographed from an image including the vehicle and discriminates a vehicle passing through a road based on an image which a photographing device such as a camera installed at a side of the road or above the road photographs. The vehicle discrimination apparatus includes an image acquisition section, a first search window setting section, a feature amount calculation section, a likelihood calculation section, a vehicle area determination section, a template creation section, a template storage section, a tracking area setting section, a second search window setting section, a candidate area determination section, a selection section, and a detection section.

Abstract: In a spectroscopic ellipsometer, light emitted from a light source enters a measurement surface of a substrate through an optical system in a lighting part so as to incline to the measurement surface to be directed to a light receiving device, and ellipsometry is performed based on spectral intensity of reflected light reflected on the measurement surface, the spectral intensity being acquired by the light receiving device. In focusing of the spectroscopic ellipsometer, a focus position of the measurement surface is obtained based on a total light amount in a predetermined wavelength band of the reflected light, the total light amount being obtained by the light receiving device. In the spectroscopic ellipsometer, since the optical system for ellipsometry and the optical system for focusing are common, it is possible to eliminate influences of change of the optical systems by temperature change or the like and to achieve high accurate focusing.

Abstract: When a digital broadcast is decoded and then re-encoded and digitally recorded, detailed program information contained in the original digital broadcast and information such as age-based viewer control information or parental control information may be lost. This problem is solved by providing a digital tuner to demodulate the digital broadcast signal and output the MPEG-TS, a demultiplexer to demultiplex the MPEG-TS into the component packet streams, an AV decoder to decode the demultiplexed AV data packets, and an AV encoder to re-encode the demultiplexed AV data packets into AV data packets for recording. A control microprocessor reads, reconstructs, and sends the PSI or SI packets demultiplexed by the demultiplexer to save the viewer control information to the system multiplexer. The system multiplexer multiplexes the PSI or SI packets with the re-encoded AV data packets, and the multiplexed stream is then written to the recording medium.

Abstract: In a trench shape measuring apparatus, a substrate having a trench pattern extending in a predetermined trench direction on a measurement area is held by a holding part. A light emission part applies illumination light to the measurement area and reflected light of the illumination light from the measurement area is spectrally dispersed by a diffraction grating of a spectroscope, to acquire a measured spectral reflectance. Since the diffraction grating is arranged so that an angle formed between a direction on the substrate corresponding to a grating direction of the diffraction grating and the trench direction becomes 45 degrees, even if an oscillation direction of the reflected light from the substrate is limited by influence of the trench pattern, it is possible to accurately obtain a spectral reflectance of the measurement area without influence of polarization of the reflected light and obtain a depth of the trench pattern with accuracy.

Abstract: In a stress measuring apparatus, reflected light of light emitted to a substrate through an objective lens is received by a light shielding pattern imaging part, to acquire an image of a light shielding pattern positioned at an aperture stop part of an optical system. A control part obtains gradient vectors of the substrate in a plurality of gradient vector measurement areas and surface form of the substrate on the basis of outputs of the light shielding pattern imaging part, to obtain a stress in a film formed on the substrate. Since light directed through the objective lens becomes approximately parallel rays of light on the substrate, measurement can be performed without focusing on each gradient vector measurement area and the surface form of the substrate can be obtained easily and rapidly. Consequently, it is possible to obtain a stress in the film formed on the substrate easily and rapidly.

Abstract: A recording apparatus having a TS obtaining unit that obtains a transport stream including video data and data broadcast content; a BML generating unit that generates state information in which a user interface screen showing in what state the apparatus is in as a result of a user's operation is described by a description method used to describe the data broadcast content; and a re-multiplexing unit that multiplexs the state information onto the transport stream.

Abstract: A viewer apparatus displays, on a display screen, a slideshow of still image data recorded on a recording medium. The viewer apparatus includes a layout determination unit 3 for allocating a display area, on the display screen, to each display-level folder located directly under a target folder, the target folder being any of folders in a hierarchical tree on the recording medium, a slideshow list generation unit 5 for selecting, as a slideshow target, still image data that belongs to one of (i) the display-level folder and (ii) a subordinate folder located below the display-level folder and a slideshow control unit 8 for executing a plurality of slideshows for the selected still image data in the display areas allocated to each of the display-level folders located above each of the still image data.

Abstract: In a spectroscopic ellipsometer, reflected light reflected on a measurement surface of a substrate is divided into a first polarized light being a linearly polarized component and a second polarized light being a linearly polarized component in a polarization direction perpendicular to the first polarized light, by an analyzer. A polarization state at each wavelength of the reflected light is measured with the first polarized light, and the size and shape of the irradiation region on the measurement surface are detected with the second polarized light. In the spectroscopic ellipsometer, detection of the size and shape of the irradiation region is performed with the second polarized light not used in measurement of the polarization state, out of the reflected light. Therefore, it is possible to detect the size and shape of the irradiation region with high accuracy with highly maintaining the measurement accuracy of the polarization state.

Abstract: In a spectroscopic ellipsometer, light emitted from a light source enters a measurement surface of a substrate through an optical system in a lighting part so as to incline to the measurement surface to be directed to a light receiving device, and ellipsometry is performed based on spectral intensity of reflected light reflected on the measurement surface, the spectral intensity being acquired by the light receiving device. In focusing of the spectroscopic ellipsometer, a focus position of the measurement surface is obtained based on a total light amount in a predetermined wavelength band of the reflected light, the total light amount being obtained by the light receiving device. In the spectroscopic ellipsometer, since the optical system for ellipsometry and the optical system for focusing are common, it is possible to eliminate influences of change of the optical systems by temperature change or the like and to achieve high accurate focusing.

Abstract: In a defect inspection apparatus, a first lighting part applies polarized light to an inspection region on a substrate, reflected light reflected on the inspection region is received by a first spectrometer in a first light receiving part, and a phase difference spectrum representing a reflection property of the reflected light is transmitted to an inspection part of a control part. In the control part, an inspection wavelength and a threshold value determined based on theoretical calculation according to a type of defects to be detected are stored in a memory in advance, and a group of defects in a plurality of recessed portions formed in the inspection region are detected based on the threshold value and a phase difference in an inspection wavelength obtained from the phase difference spectrum. Thus, it is possible to detect a defect in a small recessed portion on the substrate with high accuracy.

Abstract: In a stress measuring apparatus, reflected light of light emitted to a substrate through an objective lens is received by a light shielding pattern imaging part, to acquire an image of a light shielding pattern positioned at an aperture stop part of an optical system. A control part obtains gradient vectors of the substrate in a plurality of gradient vector measurement areas and surface form of the substrate on the basis of outputs of the light shielding pattern imaging part, to obtain a stress in a film formed on the substrate. Since light directed through the objective lens becomes approximately parallel rays of light on the substrate, measurement can be performed without focusing on each gradient vector measurement area and the surface form of the substrate can be obtained easily and rapidly. Consequently, it is possible to obtain a stress in the film formed on the substrate easily and rapidly.

Abstract: In a trench shape measuring apparatus, a substrate having a trench pattern extending in a predetermined trench direction on a measurement area is held by a holding part. A light emission part applies illumination light to the measurement area and reflected light of the illumination light from the measurement area is spectrally dispersed by a diffraction grating of a spectroscope, to acquire a measured spectral reflectance. Since the diffraction grating is arranged so that an angle formed between a direction on the substrate corresponding to a grating direction of the diffraction grating and the trench direction becomes 45 degrees, even if an oscillation direction of the reflected light from the substrate is limited by influence of the trench pattern, it is possible to accurately obtain a spectral reflectance of the measurement area without influence of polarization of the reflected light and obtain a depth of the trench pattern with accuracy.

Abstract: Disclosed is a recording apparatus for recording a plurality of audio-visual contents stored in a HD to a writable DVD. A drive controller copies at least one of the contents stored in the HD to the DVD. If the available capacity of the DVD left after the copying falls short to copy a remaining content, the remaining content is re-encoded prior to being recorded in the DVD. The bit rate to be allocated to the remaining content upon re-encoding is calculated from the available capacity of the DVD and the reproduction time of the remaining content to be re-encoded.

Abstract: The present invention provides a record and playback apparatus including: a quantitative display unit of visually quantitative displaying a record time of a record-completed image recorded in the storage medium and the remaining recordable time; a record indicator control unit of displaying at least one of a playback position in the quantitative display of an in-playing back image or a record position in the quantitative display of an in-recording image; and an indicator selection and execution unit of selecting at least one of the playback indicator, the record indicator and the quantitative display each of which is a display object, and of executing a predetermined process based on a predetermined command to be inputted and the display object to be selected, and a record medium.

Abstract: In a spectroscopic ellipsometer (1), a lighting part (3) comprises a light source part for measurement (measurement light source) (31) and a polarizer (32), and the polarizer (32) obtains polarized light from light outputted from the measurement light source (31) and guides the polarized light to a substrate (9). A light receiving part (4) comprises an analyzer (41) on which reflected light which is the polarized light reflected on the substrate 9 is incident and a spectroscope (42), and the reflected light through the analyzer (41) enters the spectroscope (42), where a polarization state at each wavelength is acquired. The spectroscopic ellipsometer (1) has a construction in which mirrors are disposed only between the measurement light source (31) and the polarizer (32) and between the analyzer (41) and the spectroscope (42).