Electricity: measuring and testing – Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components – Of individual circuit component or element
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-02
2002-07-02
Niebling, John F. (Department: 2812)
Electricity: measuring and testing
Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components
Of individual circuit component or element
C438S009000, C438S016000, C702S182000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06414499
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method for monitoring the shape of the processed surfaces of semiconductor devices, and an equipment with a monitor for manufacturing such semiconductor devices.
In a process equipment for changing the shape of a processed surface, using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), etc., the condition of a processed surface, for example, the thickness of a thin film formed on the surface, is measured after the shape changing process.
FIG. 1
is a block diagram showing the structure of a measuring apparatus as the background art of the present invention.
As is shown in
FIG. 1
, a light source
101
emits incoherent light. The emitted light strikes upon a measurement point of the processed surface of a wafer
100
via a half mirror
102
and a lens
103
. Then, the light reflects therefrom and enters a spectroscope
104
via the lens
103
and the half mirror
102
. The spectroscope
104
divides the reflected light and emits light beams of different wavelengths to the pixels of a linear image sensor (one-dimensional CCD)
105
. The linear image sensor
105
outputs, to a data processor
106
, data on the intensities of the light beams of the pixels, i.e. the intensity of a light beam of each wavelength. The data processor
106
calculates the thickness of the wafer at the measurement point from the light intensity of each pixel. Thus, the thickness of the thin film formed on the processed surface can be measured.
However, when silicon dioxide is deposited on the to-be-processed surface of a wafer, which has a step, using, for example, a plasma-assisted CVD (P-CVD) tool, the resultant silicon dioxide film on the wafer has an uneven thickness. This is because a microscopic loading effect has occurred. This kind of thickness unevenness cannot be detected from the measurement of the thickness of only one portion of the wafer. Accordingly, even when the thickness of the measurement point is detected, it is difficult to feed the measurement result, as useful process control information, back to the actual process. The same can be said of any other film forming methods, as well as the P-CVD method.
A similar disadvantage to the above may also occur when the to-be-processed surface is etched or polished. For example, in reactive ion etching (RIE), trenching may occur, where a formed trench does not have a uniform depth. In CMP, dishing may occur, where the polished surface of the wafer is not uniformly flat.
Moreover, if in the case of a damascene process using CMP, a convex portion has an uneven surface, so-called “metal residue” occurs where a metal wiring material remains on a lower surface of the convex portion, thereby short-circuiting adjacent wires. To detect the “metal residue”, inspection must be performed using an expensive low-throughput defect-inspecting device, or by the operator looking through an optical microscope. It is impossible during the inspection to subject the wafer to the next process, and hence a longer time and a greater manufacturing cost are required for the entire process.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An equipment for manufacturing semiconductor devices according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises: a processing tool which processes a to-be-processed surface of a semiconductor workpiece to a target shape; a monitor which three-dimensionally monitors a shape of a processed surface of the semiconductor workpiece while the semiconductor workpiece is set in the processing tool; and a controller which controls the processing tool in a feedback manner on the basis of the shape of the processed surface monitored by the monitor. The monitor includes: a light source radiating the processed surface with incoherent light; a spectroscope which divides light reflected from the processed surface, into a plurality of light beams of different wavelengths; an area image sensor which acquires a two-dimensional image from each of the divided light beams of different wavelengths; and a data processing tool which three-dimensionally analyzes the shape of the processed surface, and transmits information on analysis results to the controller.
An equipment for manufacturing semiconductor devices according to a second aspect of the present invention comprises: An equipment for manufacturing semiconductor devices, comprising: a processing tool which processes a to-be-processed surface of a semiconductor workpiece to a target shape; a monitor which three-dimensionally monitors a shape of a processed surface of the semiconductor workpiece while the semiconductor workpiece is set in the processing tool; and a controller which controls the processing tool in a feedback manner on the basis of the shape of the processed surface monitored by the monitor, wherein if the shape of the processed surface deviates from the target shape, the controller adjusts process conditions of the processing tool so that the target shape can be obtained.
An equipment for manufacturing semiconductor devices according to a third aspect of the present invention comprises: a processing tool which processes a to-be-processed surface of a semiconductor workpiece to a target shape; a monitor which three-dimensionally monitors a shape of a processed surface of the semiconductor workpiece while the semiconductor workpiece is set in the processing tool; and a controller which controls the processing tool in a feedback manner on the basis of the shape of the processed surface monitored by the monitor, wherein if the shape of the processed surface does not reach the target shape, the controller controls the processing tool to re-process the processed surface.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5270222 (1993-12-01), Moslehi
patent: 5658418 (1997-08-01), Coronel
patent: 5923999 (1999-07-01), Balasubraman
patent: 6019850 (2000-02-01), Frey
patent: 6202037 (2001-03-01), Hattori
patent: 10-47926 (1998-02-01), None
Okumura Katsuya
Yano Hiroyuki
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Niebling John F.
Stevenson André C
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