In recent years, the pursuit of high storage capacity in 3D-NAND flash devices has driven the addition of more layers to increase the stack height. Challenges arise when etching high aspect ratio memory holes. Due to the existence of a thick and opaque hard mask layer, overlay control faces significant lot-to-lot variation and difficulty of run-to-run feedback control. In this paper, a fundamental study on channel hole overlay variation is revealed by collecting and analyzing step-by step overlay, etch tilt and stress data. The strong correlation between overlay/tilt/stress identifies the main contributor of overlay lot-to-lot variation to be from etch tilt, which also strongly correlates to etch chamber RF hour (accumulated hours the chamber has run since its last PM event) without chamber dependency. In addition, overlay simulations showed lots grouped by RF hour can effectively reduce lot-to-lot overlay variation.
KEYWORDS: Semiconducting wafers, Critical dimension metrology, Scanning electron microscopy, Overlay metrology, Sensors, Signal detection, 3D metrology, Etching, Electron beams, Electron microscopes
An auto e-beam tilt technology was used to measure bottom critical dimensions (CD) of High-Aspect Ratio (HAR) contact holes. Results show that traditional Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) is not capable of catching bottom information, such as bending structures. A new method with hardware and software has been developed to first find the best angle to detect bottom electron signals with high acceleration voltage and then synthesize with multi-angle electron signals. By using this method, accurate bottom CD as well as the angle and direction of bended hole can be measured automatically. It is very effective for inline metrology of HAR 3D structure in semiconductor wafer processing.
Tilted channel holes affect final yield significantly in High Aspect Ratio (HAR) 3D NAND memory wafer processing. An in-line measurement method is developed to use machine learning that utilizes the spectra from optical metrology to map Tilt-X and Tilt-Y. Reliable reference is provided by high voltage SEM. Results show that the correlation of optical and HV e-Beam measurements has R2 more than 0.92. In addition, measurement throughput is improved tremendously by 40% from e-Beam to optical metrology. Combined with other optical metrology on the same platform (thickness, and Optical CD), this method is much efficient for in-line tilt measurement after channel hole etch process.
A new metrology method of quantitatively measuring wiggling patterns in a Self-Aligned Double Patterning (SADP) process for 2D NAND technology has been developed with a CD-SEM metrology program on images from a Review-SEM system. The metrology program provided accurate modeling of various wiggling patterns. The Review-SEM system provided a-few-micrometer-wide Field of View (FOV), which exceeds precision-guaranteed FOV of a conventional CD-SEM. The result has been effectively verified by visual inspection on vertically compressed images compared with Wiggling Index from this new method. A best-known method (BKM) system has been developed with connected HW and SW to automatically measure wiggling patterns.
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