The inventive concepts relate to inspecting a surface, and more particularly, to optical methods of inspecting a surface.
In manufacturing processes for manufacturing semiconductor devices, a designed pattern has to be accurately formed on the semiconductor devices in each manufacturing process. To inspect such a designed pattern, a method of manufacturing semiconductor devices that includes optically observing a shape of a semiconductor device has been used.
In some cases, according to this method, there may be a lower limit upon the size of patterns that may be inspected (e.g., nano-level patterns), and thus, an accurate analysis of nano-level patterns may be difficult.
Accordingly, a method of manufacturing semiconductor devices that includes a surface method, that is, an optical method capable of inspecting nano-level patterns have to be developed.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds