Appeal No. 2005-2310
Application 10/287,168
THE INVENTION
The appellant claims a method and apparatus for inspecting
an article such as a mask used in photolithography during the
manufacture of semiconductor devices. Claim 1, which claims the
method, is illustrative:
1. A method of inspecting articles related to
semiconductor manufacture, said method comprising:
a) creating a defect free master image by imaging an
article believed to be substantially free of defects to create a
defect-free master image and storing said defect-free master
image;
b) imaging an article under inspection;
c) comparing the image of the article under inspection
with the defect-free master image;
d) outputting the results of the comparing, specifically
identifying locations of image deviations.
THE REFERENCES
Sandland et al. (Sandland) 4,644,172 Feb. 17, 1987
Leonard et al. (Leonard) 4,928,313 May 22, 1990
McCormack 5,566,877 Oct. 22, 1996
Meisburger et al. (Meisburger) 5,717,204 Feb. 10, 1998
Omae et al. (Omae) 5,764,793 Jun. 9, 1998
Badger et al. (Badger) 5,978,501 Nov. 2, 1999
(filed Jan. 3, 1997)
Hayashi 6,061,136 May 9, 2000
(filed Nov. 12, 1997)
Matsumoto et al. (Matsumoto) 6,084,664 Jul. 4, 2000
(effective filing date Feb. 4, 1994)
Scola et al. (Scola) 6,175,644 Jan. 16, 2001
(filed May 1, 1998)
2
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