Automatic defects separation from background LSI patterns using advanced image processing techniques

This paper presents an automatic defects separation system which automatically extracts defect information from complicated background LSI patterns. Based on a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image, the defects on the wafer are characterized in terms of their locations and sizes. For this purpose, two image processing techniques, the Hough transform and the wavelet transform, have been employed. By experiments, it has been demonstrated that the system is very effective in defect identification and will be used as an integral part in future automatic defect pattern classification systems.