APPARATUS FOR AND METHOD OF AUTOMATIC OPTICAL INSPECTION OF ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT BOARDS, WAFERS AND THE LIKE FOR DEFECTS, USING SKELETAL REFERENCE INSPECTION AND SEPARATELY PROGRAMMABLE ALIGNMENT TOLERANCE AND DETECTION PARAMETERS

摘要

A novel wafer or circuit board automatic scanning optical inspection system and technique using the reference comparison principle for finding defects in scanned sample images, that enables a new degree of universality in finding all defects including very small single pixel conductor breaks and shorts and defects of irregular shapes, and together with simultaneous design rule processing, through the use of processed skeletal reference images and with separately programmable alignment tolerance and detection parameters.