Dr. John F. Valley Profile

Dr. John F. Valley

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Proceedings Article | 26 September 2016 Presentation + Paper

Scanned laser inspection of SOI wafers for HVM

John Valley, Steven Meeks, Yushan Chang, Vamsi Velidandla

Proceedings Volume 9927, 99270I (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2238461

KEYWORDS: Semiconducting wafers, Metrology, Laser scanners, Wafer inspection, Inspection, Silicon, Semiconductor lasers, Reflectivity, Data acquisition, Manufacturing

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Proceedings Article | 9 March 2016 Paper

Proposed approach to drive wafer topography for advanced lithography

John Valley, Andrey Melnikov, John Pitney

Proceedings Volume 9778, 97783X (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2214627

KEYWORDS: Semiconducting wafers, Lithography, Chemical mechanical planarization, Overlay metrology, High volume manufacturing, Manufacturing, Front end of line, Data processing, Image processing, Process control, Convolution, Surface finishing, Spatial frequencies, Linear filtering, Metrology, Polishing, Digital signal processing

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Proceedings Article | 27 August 2014 Paper

Improved quality control of silicon wafers using novel off-line air pocket image analysis

John Valley, M. Cristina Sanna

Proceedings Volume 9173, 91730A (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2060227

KEYWORDS: Semiconducting wafers, Silicon, Image processing, Inspection, Image quality, Metrology, Image analysis, Crystals, Polishing, Packaging

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Proceedings Article | 24 May 2004 Paper

Approaching new metrics for wafer flatness: an investigation of the lithographic consequences of wafer non-flatness

John Valley, Noel Poduje, Jaydeep Sinha, Neil Judell, Jie Wu, Marc Boonman, Sjef Tempelaars, Youri van Dommelen, Hans Kattouw, Jan Hauschild, William Hughes, Alexis Grabbe, Les Stanton

Proceedings Volume 5375, (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.536092

KEYWORDS: Semiconducting wafers, Lithography, Critical dimension metrology, Metrology, Data acquisition, Reticles, Silicon, Inspection, Nomenclature, Optical alignment

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Flatness of the incoming silicon wafer is one major contributor to the ultimate focusing limitation of modern exposure tools. Exposure tools are designed to chuck wafers without creating non-flatness and then use focus control to follow as closely as possible the chucked wafer front surface topography. The smaller size of the exposure slit in a step-and-scan exposure tool, as compared to the previous generation full-field stepper tool, helps minimize the impact of chucked wafer non-flat topography. However, to maintain high throughput and improve critical dimension uniformity (CDU) at sub-wavelength line-widths requires continuous improvement in the incoming silicon wafer flatness. In this paper we report extensive experimental results that review existing wafer flatness metrics and propose the addition of a new metric. The new metric emulates the scanning motion of exposure by integrating the defocus that each point on the wafer experiences during exposure. We show that this method is in better spatial agreement with measured defocus in step-and-scan exposure tools. Simple metrics of moving average (MA) defocus prediction analysis will be defined and shown to correlate very well to post exposure defocus data. These experiments were enabled by the creation of special 300-nm wafers by MEMC. These special wafers include sites with a wide variation in flatness. Prior to exposure the wafers were measured with a high-resolution optical flatness metrology tool (WaferSight by ADE) to obtain industry standard thickness variation (flatness) data. Incoming wafer flatness data is used to predict wafer suitability for lithography at the desired device geometry node (e.g., 90 nm). The flatness data was processed and characterized using both standard metrics (SFQR) and the new MA analysis. The relationship between the industry standard metric (SFQR) and similar metrics applied to MA analysis will be presented. Full two-dimensional maps are used to present spatial correlations and permit simple physical insights into the flatness data sets. Measurements of chucked wafer flatness were made on the same wafers using ASML TWINSCAN in-line metrology. These measurements correlate very well to thickness-based flatness. Un-chucked wafer flatness metrics (SFQR and MA) are shown to correlate well to post exposure defocus data when an appropriate site size is used. This result is discussed in relationship to the industry-accepted practice of specifying un-chucked wafer flatness. Lithography performance tests were made to prove the relevance of the different flatness metrics. The same special wafers are used for lithography performance tests. These tests achieve excellent correlation between post-exposure full-wafer focus control results and predictions based on both SFQ (industry standard) and MA re-mapping of the flatness data. The relationship between measured critical dimension (CD) and defocus is also explored. Point-by-point analysis of CD residual versus measured defocus data nicely follows a Bossung curve. We also show that residual CD values predicted from defocus correlate well with measured values. These experiments confirm the application of industry standard wafer flatness measurements to step-and-scan lithography when appropriately using current metrics. They also present the potential for improved metrics based on the MA defocus prediction analysis to help drive continuous improvement of wafer flatness for advanced step-and-scan lithography.

Proceedings Article | 16 July 2002 Paper

Nanotopography metrology for leading edge 300-mm process integration

John Valley, Todd Templeton, Chris Koliopoulos, Masanori Yoshise

Proceedings Volume 4689, (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.473431

KEYWORDS: Semiconducting wafers, Metrology, Statistical analysis, Manufacturing, Photovoltaics, Interferometers, Polishing, Chemical mechanical planarization, Interferometry, Lithography

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Proceedings Article | 10 December 2001 Paper

Interferometric metrology of wafer nanotopography for advanced CMOS process integration

John Valley, Chris Koliopoulos, Shouhong Tang

Proceedings Volume 4449, (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.450091

KEYWORDS: Semiconducting wafers, Interferometry, Metrology, Statistical analysis, Chemical mechanical planarization, Interferometers, Polishing, Photovoltaics, Semiconductors, Manufacturing

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Proceedings Article | 3 May 1994 Paper

Spatial solitary waves, solitons, and vortices

Francois Brown de Colstoun, Galina Khitrova, Hyatt Gibbs, Jeffrey Grantham, M. Liang, J. Xu, John Valley, Curtis Lowry, Y. Kawamura, H. Iwamura, T. Ikegami

Proceedings Volume 2098, (1994) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.175141

KEYWORDS: Solitons, Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, Spiral phase plates, Spatial solitons, Semiconductors, Diffraction, Planar waveguides, Waveguides, Plasma, Sodium

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Proceedings Article | 1 July 1993 Paper

Chip-to-chip interconnects using poled polymer integrated optic transmitter networks

Timothy Van Eck, Dexter Girton, John Valley, Susan Ermer, Anthony Ticknor, George Lipscomb, Richard Lytel

Proceedings Volume 1849, (1993) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.147114

KEYWORDS: Polymers, Integrated optics, Electro optics, Waveguides, Optical interconnects, Transmitters, Switches, Dielectrics, Electro optic polymers, Electroactive polymers

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Proceedings Article | 27 April 1993 Paper

DCM-polyimide system for triple-stack poled polymer electro-optic devices

Susan Ermer, John Valley, Richard Lytel, George Lipscomb, Timothy Van Eck, Dexter Girton, Doris Leung, Steven Lovejoy

Proceedings Volume 1853, (1993) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.144060

KEYWORDS: Polymers, Dielectrics, Waveguides, Electro optics, Cladding, Chromophores, Electro optic polymers, Absorption, Optoelectronics, Refractive index

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Proceedings Article | 14 January 1993 Paper

Organic electro-optic devices for optical interconnection

George Lipscomb, Richard Lytel, Susan Ermer, John Valley, Timothy Van Eck, Dexter Girton, Anthony Ticknor

Proceedings Volume 1774, (1993) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.139188

KEYWORDS: Polymers, Waveguides, Polymer multimode waveguides, Electro optic polymers, Optical interconnects, Cladding, Dielectrics, Electro optics, Integrated optics, Modulators

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Proceedings Article | 16 December 1992 Paper

Bifurcations of optical transverse solitary waves

Jeffrey Grantham, Galina Khitrova, Hyatt Gibbs, John Valley, J. Xu

Proceedings Volume 1840, (1992) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.131793

KEYWORDS: Sodium, Wave propagation, Monochromatic aberrations, Nonlinear optics, Doppler effect, Raman spectroscopy, Absorption, Chemical species, Spatial filters, Dye lasers

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Proceedings Article | 1 December 1991 Paper

Organic electro-optic devices for optical interconnnection

George Lipscomb, Richard Lytel, Anthony Ticknor, Timothy Van Eck, Dexter Girton, Susan Ermer, John Valley, John Kenney, Edward Binkley

Proceedings Volume 1560, (1991) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.50736

KEYWORDS: Polymers, Modulation, Optical interconnects, Electro optics, Logic, Modulators, Electrodes, Integrated optics, Electro optic polymers, Organic materials

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Proceedings Article | 1 December 1991 Paper

Poled polyimides as thermally stable electro-optic polymer

Jeong Wu, John Valley, Marc Stiller, Susan Ermer, Edward Binkley, John Kenney, George Lipscomb, Richard Lytel

Proceedings Volume 1560, (1991) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.50717

KEYWORDS: Polymers, Nonlinear optics, Molecules, Diffusion, Dielectrics, Electrodes, Electro optic polymers, Thin films, Semiconductors, Organic materials

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Proceedings Article | 1 December 1990 Paper

Measurement of electro-optic poling transient effects in polymer thin films

John Valley, Jeong Wu

Proceedings Volume 1337, (1990) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.22947

KEYWORDS: Polymers, Diffusion, Modulation, Heterodyning, Data modeling, Electro optics, Organic materials, Bragg cells, Electro optical modeling, Mirrors

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Showing 5 of 14 publications

Conference Committee Involvement (4)

Instrumentation, Metrology, and Standards for Nanomanufacturing, Optics, and Semiconductors V

24 August 2011 | San Diego, California, United States

Advanced Characterization Techniques for Optics, Semiconductors, and Nanotechnologies III

28 August 2007 | San Diego, California, United States

Advanced Characterization Techniques for Optics, Semiconductors, and Nanotechnologies II

2 August 2005 | San Diego, California, United States

Advanced Characterization Techniques for Optics, Semiconductors, and Nanotechnologies

3 August 2003 | San Diego, California, United States

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