The accurate measurement of CD (critical dimension) and its application to inline process control are key challenges for high yield and OEE (overall equipment efficiency) in semiconductor production. CD-SEM metrology, although providing the resolution necessary for CD evaluation, suffers from the well-known effect of resist shrinkage, making accuracy and stability of the measurements an issue. For sub-100 nm in-line process control, where accuracy and stability as well as speed are required, CD-SEM metrology faces serious limitations. In contrast, scatterometry, using broadband optical spectra taken from grating structures, does not suffer from such limitations. This technology is non-destructive and, in addition to CD, provides profile information and film thickness in a single measurement. Using Timbre's Optical Digital Profililometry (ODP) technology, we characterized the Process Window, using a iODP101 integrated optical CD metrology into a TEL Clean Track at IMEC. We demonstrate the Optical CD's high sensitivity to process change and its insensitivity to measurement noise. We demonstrate the validity of ODP modeling by showing its accurate response to known process changes built into the evaluation and its excellent correlation to CD-SEM. We will further discuss the intrinsic Optical CD metrology factors that affect the tool precision, accuracy and its correlation to CD-SEM.
Timbre's Optical Digital Profilometry (ODP) system is a scatterometry-based metrology. In lithography applications, the critical dimension (CD) is often patterned photoresist (PR) on an anti-reflective coating (ARC). When a patterned PR is exposed to the broadband light of the optical metrology tool, a change in reflectance may occur. For "sensitive" film stacks, the changing optical signals then produce changing ODP CD, sidewall angle, and film thickness measurements. This report summarizes the results of several resist and ARC stacks subjected to the repeated broadband light exposure of a Therma-Wave CCD-i reflectometry system. The purpose is to determine which resist-ARC stacks are significantly affected by repeated measurement exposure, and to quantify these effects. Our analysis shows that very little metrology exposure-induced change occurs for ArF resists. For KrF resists, the change is closely related to the type of KrF resist used; acetal-types incur large spectral changes upon repeated exposure, whereas ESCAP (Environmentally Stable Chemically Amplified Photoreist) resists measurements are very stable. Significant reduction of metrology induced spectral and CD change as achieved by incorporating a long-pass filter into the system. The changes due to a single measurement are negligible, however, they can be substantial for a sensitive material when characterizing metrology repeatability. Thus, it is recommended to use stable materials, such as oxide gratings, for metrology characterization.
KEYWORDS: Critical dimension metrology, Semiconducting wafers, Lithography, Metrology, Scatterometry, Process control, 193nm lithography, Control systems, Finite element methods, Time metrology
In the continuous drive for smaller feature sizes, process monitoring becomes increasingly important to compensate for the smaller lithography process window and to assure that Critical Dimensions (CD) remain within the required specifications. Moreover, the higher level of automation in manufacturing enables almost real-time correction of lithography cluster machine parameters, resulting in a more efficient and controlled use of the tools. Therefore, fast and precise in-line lithography metrology using Advanced Process Control (APC) rules are becoming crucial, in order to guarantee that critical dimensions stay correctly targeted.
In this paper, the feasibility of improving the CD control of a 193nm lithography cluster has been investigated by using integrated scatterometry. The target of the work was to identify if a dose correction on field and wafer level, based on precise in-line measurements, could improve the overall CD control. Firstly, the integrated metrology has been evaluated extensively towards precision and sensitivity in order to prove its benefits for this kind of control. Having a long-term repeatability of significantly better than 0.75nm 3σ, this was very promising towards the requirements for sub-nanometer CD correction. Moreover, based on an extensive evaluation of the process window on the lithography cluster, it has been shown that the focus variation is minimal and that CD control can be improved using dose correction only. In addition, systematic variations in across-wafer uniformity and across-lot uniformity have been determined during this monitoring period, in order to identify correctable fingerprints. Finally, the dose correction model has been applied to compensate for these systematic CD variations and improved CD control was demonstrated. Using a simple dose correction rule, a forty percent improvement in CD control was obtained.
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