Abstract: Method and apparatus for detecting non-uniformities in reflective surfaces, including an electro-luminescent panel for providing a substantially uniform illumination of the reflective surface of a planar object, such as a silicon wafer to be inspected, a camera positioned at an angle suitable for detecting light reflected from the inspected surface and for generating an output representative of the intensity of light reflected from each pixel of the reflective surface, and processing apparatus communicatively coupled to the camera and responsive to the output generated by the camera to in turn generate an output indicative of the surface uniformity of the surface under inspection. The preferred embodiment will normally include an appropriate housing or baffle structure for limiting the light viewed by the camera to that from the source as reflected by the surface being inspected, and may further include wafer-handling means and camera-positioning means.

Abstract: An optical emission microscopy system with a macro optic system having a high numerical aperture for obtaining global views of an integrated circuit Device Under Test (DUT). The DUT is subjected to illumination and stimulation conditions, and images are obtained to form a "global difference" image in which defects, wherever located in the chip, can be discerned by the system operator. The operator can select apparent "defect bright spots" to be further inspected, and zoom in with the higher magnification micro optics system to repeat the image formation steps. "Difference images" are processed to further eliminate noise spots using an improved two-stage filtering operation. The system may be operated under manual or automatic control, and may be interfaced to various data input, storage, and output devices as desired.