Methods and apparatus are provided for determining a characteristic of a sample of a material by the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with the sample. The apparatus includes an optical assembly and a protective barrier. The optical assembly sequentially illuminates a plurality of volume elements in the sample with an intensity distribution in the sample that drops off substantially monotonically from a first region in a first optical path and collects electromagnetic radiation emanating from each of the volume elements. The optical assembly collects the electromagnetic radiation emanating from each of the volume elements with a collected distribution that drops off substantially monotonically from a second region in a second optical path. The first and second regions at least partially overlap in each of the volume elements. The optical assembly can be configured as a probe, to be directed to the evaluation of a sample of a biological material. A protective barrier can be disposed between the optical assembly and a body tissue, to prevent contamination of the optical assembly by said body tissue.

Spectral volume microprobe arrays

A laser imaging system is used to analyze defects on semiconductor wafers that have been detected by patterned wafer defect detecting systems (wafer scanners). The laser imaging system replaces optical microscope review stations now utilized in the semiconductor fab environment to examine detected optical anomalies that may represent wafer defects. In addition to analyzing defects, the laser imaging system can perform a variety of microscopic inspection functions including defect detection and metrology. The laser imaging system uses confocal laser scanning microscopy techniques, and operates under class 1 cleanroom conditions and without exposure of the wafers to operator contamination or airflow. Unlike scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) that have previously been used for defect analysis, the laser imaging system will not damage samples or slow processing, costs significantly less to implement than an SEM, can produce a three dimensional image which provides quantitative dimensional information, and allows sub-surface viewing of defects lying beneath dielectric layers. The laser imaging system is adaptable to cluster or in-situ applications, where examination of defects or structures during on-line processing can be performed.

Laser imaging system for inspection and analysis of sub-micron particles

An optical probe collects light emanating from a specimen that selectively andpreferentially represents a localized volume element within the sample, with illuminationintensity and collection efficacy both dropping off away from the localized volume element to limit the integrated contribution from outside the element. For example, the optics provide high peak illumination and high collection efficiency which both overlap in volume elements of a limited size corresponding to a structure or process of the specimen. The resulting collected signal comprising one or more spectral segments is highly correlated with optical characteristics, such as absorbance, scattering or fluorescence characteristics of material in the small volume elements. A processor may apply a previously-derived vector or matrix transform to the collected responses to produce an output. The collected spectra or other responses have high signal strength and represent small or otherwise inaccessible or masked optical effects present in the sample, so that they are readily correlated to conditions of interest.

Spectral volume microprobe for analysis of materials

A method is described for characterizing defects on a test surface of a semiconductor wafer using a confocal-microscope-based automatic defect characterization (ADC) system. The surface to be tested and a reference surface are scanned using a confocal microscope to obtain three-dimensional images of the test and reference surfaces. The test and reference images are converted into sets of geometric constructs, or “primitives,” that are used to approximate features of the images. Next, the sets of test and reference primitives are compared to determine whether the set of test primitives is different from the set of reference primitives. If such a difference exists, then the difference data is used to generate defect parameters, which are then compared to a knowledge base of defect reference data. Based on this comparison, the ADC system characterizes the defect and estimates a degree of confidence in the characterization.

Method for characterizing defects on semiconductor wafers

The invention provides methods for displaying diagnostic results obtained from a tissue sample. In general, the invention assigns tissue-class probability values to discrete regions of a patient sample, and creates an overlay for displaying the results. The overlay facilitates display of the tissue class probabilities in a way that reflects the diagnostic relevance of the data. For example, methods of the invention comprise applying filtering and color-blending techniques in order to facilitate display of diagnostic results.

Methods and apparatus for displaying diagnostic data

A confocal type laser scan microscope comprises a substrate including a first channel wave guide having a first end and having the other end connected to a connecting port of a mode splitter, a second channel wave guide having a second end and having the other end connected to the mode splitter and a third channel wave guide having a third end and having the other end connected to the connecting port of the mode splitter; a laser diode connected to the first end for supplying a light to the first channel wave guide; a microscope optical system arranged at the second end which is conjugate with a sample surface relative to the microscope optical system; and a photo-detector connected to the third end for detecting the light from the second end.

Confocal type laser scan microscope with integrated illumination, detection and waveguide system

An optical waveguide device formed by a material showing anisotropy for refraction index and an optical instrument using the same device. The device comprises an electro-optic single crystal substrate on which are formed a first core portion higher in refractive index than the substrate with respect to both ordinary and extraordinary rays and a second core portion higher in refractive index than the substrate with respect to extraordinary rays pnly whereby the first core portion forms a single-moded waveguide for ordinary rays, and the overlapping region of the first and second core portions forms a double-moded waveguide for extraordinary rays. This optical waveguide device is used in place of a pinhole elementin an optical system of a confocal scanning optical microscopeso as to guide illuminating light to an object to be detected and to guide the reflected light from the object into a detector. This microscope includes a polarization conversion element for converting the polarizing direction of the illuminating light to one different from that of reflected light. The optical waveguide device functions as a single-moded waveguide for the illuminating light and as a double-moded waveguide for the reflected light.

Optical waveguide device and optical microscope using the same

An acquiring unit of a structured illuminating microscopy apparatus acquires at least two modulated images having the same wave number vector and the different phases; and a calculating unit of the structured illuminating microscopy apparatus, in a spatial frequency spectrum of each of at least the two modulated images acquired by the acquiring unit, separates a 0th-order modulating component and ±first-order modulating components of observational light fluxes superimposed on arbitrary two observation points based on at least four observation values regarding the two observation points which are mutually displaced by an amount of the wave number vector.

Structured illuminating microscopy apparatus

A device comprises five wave guides and two interposed TE-TM mode splitters, formed on a substrate. A first mode splitter splits a first wave guide into second and third wave guides, and a second mode splitter splits a third wave guide into fourth and fifth wave guides. A light beam directed to the first wave guide through the second wave guide is radiated to a magneto-optical recording medium. A signal light beam carrying the information recorded on the medium, reflected by the medium, is directed to the third wave guide through the first mode splitter, and the polarization plane of the signal light beam is rotated by a polarization plane rotation device. The signal light beam is further split by the second mode splitter and directed to the fourth and fifth wave guides, thence to external detectors.

Optical integrated device for magneto-optical reproducing head

A confocal laser scanning differential interference microscope includes an illumination optical system for radiating a laser light spot onto an object, a focusing optical system for focusing light reflected by the object onto a detection surface, a detection optical system for detecting the reflected light focused on the detection surface, a scanning device for scanning the laser light spot relative to the object, and an optical element arranged between the focusing optical system and the detection optical system, and having a waveguide device for propagating the reflected light focused by the focusing optical system. The waveguide device has waveguides in at least two directions perpendicular to the optical axis of incident light. The waveguides constitute a double-mode transmission waveguide, which selects either of a combination of a 0th-order mode and a 1st-order mode and the 0th-order mode alone in each of the two directions of the reflected light from the object according to amplitude distributions of electric fields in the two directions of the incident light as waveguide modes in the two directions upon propagation of the incident light, and propagates light in the selected modes. The detection optical system receives light emerging from the waveguide, and detects whether the waveguide in each of the two directions is the combination of the 0th-order mode and the 1st-order mode, or the 0th-order mode alone, thereby detecting amplitude distributions of the electric fields, in the two directions, of the reflected light from the object.

Hiroshi Ohki

Papers

Confocal type laser scan microscope with integrated illumination, detection and waveguide system

Optical waveguide device and optical microscope using the same

Structured illuminating microscopy apparatus

Optical integrated device for magneto-optical reproducing head

Confocal laser scanning microscope with dual mode waveguide