An in-line image quality monitoring system for imaging device fabrication using automated macro-inspection - art. no. 61522W

An in-line image quality monitoring system using automated macro-inspection is described. One of the critical problems in reducing yield in CCD manufacture is the production of mura, regions of uneven sensitivity in the device. In this paper, an in-line mura-related yield monitor is presented using the recently developed Tokyo Aircraft Instrument Company EDIS-3000 Automated Macro-Inspection system, which has a high sensitivity and a high resolution optical module developed by IBM (TM) Japan. The optical module is designed to focus on reflected light from the pattern edge, not on the traditional diffracted light, so it is expected to register the linearity between the wafer CD and the wafer image. This system is expected to reduce yield loss, resulting in a faster time-to-market for imaging devices.