THICKNESS MEASUREMENT USING AFM FOR NEXT GENERATION LITHOGRAPHY

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method (100) of determining a film thickness and comprises identifying (114) a depth associated with a defect (106) in an underlying material (108) and forming (116) the film (130) over the underlying material (108). The method (100) further comprises identifying (118) a depth associated with the defect (106) in the film (108) and then using (124) the identified depths to determine the film thickness. The present invention also relates to a system (200) for determining a film thickness and comprises a defect inspection tool (204) operable to identify a location of one or more defects (106) in an underlying material (108) and a topology measurement tool (208) operable to measure a change in topology of a surface. The system (200) also comprises a controller (206) operably coupled to the defect inspection tool (204) and the topology measurement tool (208). The controller (206) is adapted to receive location information from the defect inspection tool (204) relating to the one or more defects (106) and use the location information to generate and transmit one or more control signals to the topology measurement tool (208) to evaluate a topology of an underlying material (108) and a film (130) at the location corresponding to the one or more defects (106) to thereby generate topology information. Lastly, the controller (206) is adapted to receive the topology information from the topology measurement tool (208) and determine a film thickness using the topology information.

Description: THICKNESS MEASUREMENT USING AFM FOR NEXT GENERATION LITHOGRAPHY TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates generally to lithography and more particularly relates to a system and method for measuring films associated with lithography processes or other type semiconductor fabrication processes BACKGROUND ART In the semiconductor industry there is a continuing trend toward higher device densities To achieve these high densities there has been, and continues to be, efforts toward scalmg down the device dimensions on semiconductor wafers In order to accomplish such a high device packing density, smaller features sizes are required This may include the width and spacing of interconnecting lmes and the surface geometry such as the corners and edges of various features The requirement of small features with close spacing between adjacent features requires high resolution photolithographic processes In general, lithography refers to processes for pattern transfer between various media It is a technique used for integrated circuit fabrication in which, for example, a silicon wafer is coated uniformly with a radiation-sensitive film (e g , & photoresist), and an exposing source (such as ultraviolet light, x-rays, or an electron beam) illuminates selected areas of the film surface through an intervening master template (e g , a mask or reticle) to generate a particular pattern The exposed pattern on the photoresist film is then developed with a solvent called a developer which makes the exposed pattern either soluble or insoluble depending on the type of photoresist (t e , positive or negative resist) The soluble portions of the resist are then removed, thus leaving a photoresist mask corresponding to the desired pattern on the silicon wafer for further processing As process designers continue to shrink the size of the features which make up vaπous semiconductor components, various process parameters must be tightly controlled For example, in order to provide small, repeatable feature sizes, the thickness of various films such as photoresist layers and anti- reflective coatings (ARCs) must be small and uniform about the surface of the wafer Consequently, process designers regularly measure the thickness of such films Film thicknesses typically are determined using characterization equations provided by the tool manufacturers which use various film material constants such as absorption coefficients and optical constants such as the index of refraction Using such equations, process developers can implement vaπous tests and take various parametric measurements, insert the measured data into the equations, and calculate an approximate film thickness Although such thickness determination techniques are modestly accurate, the characterization equations require that the various film material constants which characterize the film be known For newly developed materials such as next generation photoresists and ARC materials, such advanced characterization data is not easily available, thus making the determination of such film thicknesses difficult DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION The present invention relates to a system and method of measuring accurately a film thickness without the use of film material characterization data Accordmg to one aspect of the present invention, the system and method of measuring a film thickness includes identifying a location of a defect, for example, a crystalline defect, in an underlying material such as a semiconductor substrate Using the defect location information, the depth or height of the defect is measured using, for example, a topography evaluation tool After the film to be measured is formed over the underlying material, the defect, which is reproduced in the overlying film, is agam measured to identify the depth or height associated therewith Using the measured pre-film and post-film defect depth data, the film thickness is determined The present invention avoids the need to have characterization data associated with the film to be measured and thereby facilitates process development using new and/or advanced film materials According to another aspect of the present invention, a method of determining a film thickness includes identifying a location of one or more defects such as pits or crystal-originated particle defects in a material such as a semiconductor wafer Once the defect locatιon(s) is identified, the location data is used to measure the depth or height of the defect(s) Subsequently, the film to be measured is formed over the material and, because the film generally is conformal, the defect(s) is reproduced therein Again, us g the defect location data, the depth or height of the defect(s) are measured The defect depth/height data (both prior to film formation and after film formation) is then utilized to calculate the film thickness without the need of characterization data related to the film material In addition, if multiple defects exist, the multiple data pomts may be utilized to determine an average film thickness along with other statistical data Accordmg to another aspect of the present invention, a system for determining a film thickness is disclosed The system includes a defect inspection tool, a topography measurement tool and a processor The defect inspection tool evaluates an underlymg material such as a semiconductor substrate to identify a location associated with one or more defects and transmits the location data to the processor The processor then uses the location data to control the positioning of the topography measurement tool m order to collect depth or height data The topography measurement tool identifies the depth or height associated with the one or more defects and transmits the defect depth/height data to the processor After the film to be measured is formed over the underlying material, the processor and topography measurement tool agam interface to collect the defect depth/height data associated with the one or more defects which are reproduced in the overlying film Usmg the defect depth/height data, the processor determines the film thickness without the need for film characterization data, thus substantially facilitating process development associated with new materials To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out m the claims The following description and the annexed drawings set forth m detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention These embodiments are indicative, however, of but a few of the vaπous ways m which the principles of the invention may be employed Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered m conjunction with the drawings BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a flow chart diagram illustrating a method of determining a film thickness accordmg to the present invention, Figure 2 is a plan view of a wafer illustrating a plurality of crystal-originated particle defects thereon, Figure 3 is a cross section diagram illustrating the wafer of Fig 2 taken along dotted line 3-3, Figure 4 is a fragmentary cross section diagram illustrating in greater detail an exemplary crystal- originated particle defect, Figure 5 is a fragmentary cross section diagram illustrating a depth height and width associated with an exemplary crystal-originated defect, Figure 6 is a fragmentary cross section diagram illustrating a depth/height and width associated with a crystal-originated defect and a film lymg thereover, respectively, Figure 7a is a fragmentary cross section diagram illustrating a depth/height and width associated with a crystal-originated defect and a film lying thereover, respectively, Figure 7b is a fragmentary cross section diagram illustrating a depth/height and width associated with a crystal-originated defect and a film lying thereover, respectively, and Figure 8 is a system for determining a film thickness according to the present mvention MODE(S) FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The following is a detailed description of the present mvention made m conjunction with the attached Figures, wherein like reference numerals will refer to like elements throughout The present invention includes a system and method of determining a film thickness without using film characterization data The film thickness is determined preferably by identifying a crystal-originated particle (COP) defect in an underlying material such as a blank silicon wafer and measurmg the COP depth The film to be measured is then formed over the underlying material and again the COP depth or height is measured Usmg the depth height data associated with the COP both before and after the film formation, the film thickness is determined Turning now to the Figures, Fig 1 is a flow chart illustrating a method 100 of measurmg a film thickness according to the present invention The method 100 begms at step 102 by performing a defect mspection of an underlying material According to the present example, the underlying material is a blank wafer and the defect inspection comprises looking for COP-type defects associated therewith Alternatively, however, any material or film having one or more measurable defects (not solely COPs) associated therewith may be utilized and is contemplated as falling within the scope of the present mvention Fig 2 is a plan view illustrating a wafer 104 havmg a plurality of COPs 106 associated therewith COPs are believed to be defects associated with a wafer which are grown-in and consist of mcomplete octahedral voids and thin SιO x walls of several nanometers surrounding the respective voids Consequently, the COPs 106 resemble small pits on the surface 108 of the wafer 104, as illustrated in Figs 3 and 4, respectively The purpose of the defect mspection step 102 is to identify a location of one or more defects on the underlymg material (e g , the wafer 104) (step 110) so that the location information may be used subsequently to position a measurement tool for characterizing the defects Accordmgly, any manner of inspecting the wafer 104 may be utilized, for example, usmg an optical mspection tool such as a KLA- Tencor 2138 Bπghtfield Inspection System or a SP1 Surfscan ® , or a scanning electron microscope (SEM) Accordmg to the present mvention, the size of the defect is preferably the same order of magnitude as the film thickness to be measured Consequently, step 110 further includes a filtermg step, wherein only those defects of a predetermined size will be evaluated For example, if the film to be measured is a photoresist film of about 0 1 micron (1000 Angstroms), only those defects havmg a size of about 0 1 micron or less will be evaluated If the type of defect(s) to be identified are COP-type defects, it is preferred that both an optical tool and an SEM be used smce an optical tool will locate COPs both on the surface and embedded within the material to a depth of about several hundred nanometers Usmg an SEM in conjunction with an optical tool, the embedded COPs can be "filtered out" so that only those COPs which are on the surface will be identified for subsequent characterization Once the coordinates for the "filtered" defects are identified at step 110, the defect coordmates are transferred to a topography measurement tool such as an atomic force microscope (AFM) at step 112 Such defect location information may be in the form of X-Y coordmates, for example, (X„ Y,), (X 2 , Y 2 ), (X n , Y n ) for "n" identified defects Any form of location information, however, may be employed and is contemplated as falling within the scope of the present mvention Usmg the defect location information, the method 100 continues at step 114 by measurmg at least the depth or height of one or more of the identified defects According to one example of the invention, the depth or height of the defects is measured by a topography measurement tool such as an AFM (e g , h,(X,, Y,), h,(X 2 , Y 2 ), h,(X n , Y n ), wherem h, represents the pre-film defect depth/height for the respective defects) Subsequently, the film to be measured (e g , a photoresist film) is formed over the underlymg material (e g , the wafer 104) at step 116 and again the defect depths/heights are measured at step 118 (e g , h 2 (X,, Y,), h 2 (X 2 , Y 2 ), h 2 (X n , Y n ), wherein h 2 represents the post-film depth for the respective defects) Upon collecting the post film deposition defect depth/height data, a preferred step of determining whether the film is conformal with respect to the defects (step 120) is conducted If the film is determined not to be conformal (NO at step 120), the method 100 preferably is discontinued at step 122 because (as will be discussed in greater detail infra) the conclusion based on the use of the collected defect data may not be reliable Alternatively, however, if the film is determined to be conformal (YES at step 120), then the collected defect depth/height data is used to determine the film thickness at step 124 Preferably, the confomality check at step 120 is employed to ensure that the defect depth/height measurements, upon their use m subsequent calculations, will render reliable results. An exemplary confomality check is illustrated in Figs. 5-7b, respectively In Fig 5, a defect such as a COP is illustrated having a depth/height h, and a width W, Upon the formation of the film 130 to be measured, the defect is agin measured havmg a depth/height h 2 and a width W 2 If the width W 2 is approximately the same as the pre-film defect width W, (W, = W 2 ), then the film 130 is generally conformal, and the difference m the defect depth/height Δh reflects the film thickness (Δh = t F = h, - h 2 ) provided that the defect width W, is generally about the expected thickness of the film 130, as illustrated in Fig 6 If, however, the post-film width W 2 is not approximately the pre-film width W„ then the difference in defect depth/height Δh does not accurately reflect the film thickness, as illustrated in Fig. 7a. Similarly, if the film thickness is such that the entire defect area is filled (h 2 = 0), then the difference m defect depth/height will not accurately reflect the film thickness, as illustrated in Fig 7b In the present invention, COPs are utilized in a preferred example because their width generally is consistent in the vicinity of about 0.1 micron and various advanced thin film photoresists under development are in the range of about 50-100 nm Therefore use of COPs to determine photoresist film thicknesses will work effectively Consequently, it is advantageous to filter out defects during defect mspection (as discussed briefly supra) that are too large or too small with respect to the expected film thickness of the film to be measured The present invention, however, is equally applicable to other types of films and film thicknesses. In such cases, different type defects may be utilized and such variations are contemplated as falling within the scope of the present mvention. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a system for determining a film thickness is disclosed, as illustrated in Fig. 8 and designated at reference numeral 200 In the system 200, an underlymg material such as a wafer 202 has one or more defects associated therewith on its surface. A defect inspection tool 204 is operably coupled to the wafer 202, and is operable to identify the location associated with the wafer defects. Such a defect mspection tool may mclude an optical tool and/or an SEM, however, any tool for identifying defects may be utilized and is contemplated as falling within the scope of the present mvention The defect inspection tool 204 operates m conjunction with a processor 206, wherem m response to one or more control signals from the processor 206, the defect inspection tool 204 identifies one or more defects and communicates location information (e g , (X„ Y,), (X 2 , Y 2 ),. (X„, Y n )) to the processor 206. The processor 206 is also operably coupled to a topography measurement tool 208, such as an AFM. Although an AFM is disclosed in the above example, any type of topography tool (e g , a scanning probe microscope) or other type defect measurement device may be utilized and is contemplated as falling within the scope of the present invention In operation, the processor 206 communicates the location information to the topography measurement tool 208 which uses the location information to position the tool for measurement of the various defects The system 200 also may include an output peripheral 210 operably coupled to the processor 206 which allows a user to view the collected data in a variety of formats (e g , tabular data, graphical or other), as may be desired The system 200 operates generally in the following exemplary manner The processor 206 transmits one or more control signals to the defect inspection tool 204 in order to initiate the collection of defect location information The defect mspection tool 204 then performs the defect mspection and identifies positional indicia associated with each of the defects In the exemplary embodiment where COP- type defects associated with a blank silicon wafer are used, the defect inspection tool is an optical inspection tool and is used to identify any defects less than or equal to about 0 1 micron, with the larger defects being "filtered out" or otherwise ignored Because an optical tool is capable, in some cases, of detectmg COP-type defects both on the wafer surface and within the wafer to a depth of a couple hundred Angstroms, an SEM is also used m conjunction with the optical tool to separate out those COPs which are embedded m the wafer 130 The defect inspection tool 204 may itself filter out any defects outside an acceptable size or it may transmit all location data to the processor 206 for subsequent filtering In any event, the processor 206 transmits the location data along with one or more control signals to the topography measurement tool 208 The tool 208 takes the data and in accordance with the control signals takes measurements at each defect location According to the present example, such measurements include both the depth and the width of each defect, and such information is transmitted either back to the processor 206 or to a memory (not shown) which is accessible by the processor 206 Once the data associated with the pre-film defects has been collected, the film to be measured is formed on the wafer 202 (or any other type substrate) and, agam using the defect location information, the post-film defect data (preferably the depthheight and width) is collected and transferred to the processor 206 The processor 206 then utilizes the pre-film and the post-film defect data to calculate the film thickness Preferably, the processor 206 first uses (accordmg to its programming or physical configuration) the defect width data to determine whether the film is conformal with respect to the various defects As discussed supra, it is desirable to ensure that the film is generally conformal in order to ensure the resulting data is reliable The processor 206 checks the conformality by comparmg the width of the various defects before and after the film formation If the post-film width W 2 is within a predetermined range or percentage of the pre-film width W,, then the film is considered to be conformal Otherwise, the film is not sufficiently conformal and the depth may be considered unreliable Once the conformality check is complete, the processor 206 determines the film thickness by subtracting the post-film defect depth/height h 2 from the pre-film depth/height h, (t F = h, - h 2 ). In order to calculate an average, the thickness associated with multiple defects can be averaged and other statistical methods may be employed to analyze the data, as may be desired. The results are then sent by the processor 206 to the output peripheral 210 for review. Although the invention has been shown and described with respect to a certain preferred embodiment or embodiments, it is obvious that equivalent alterations and modifications will occur to others skilled in the art upon the reading and understanding of this specification and the annexed drawings. In particular regard to the various functions performed by the above described components (assemblies, devices, circuits, etc.), the terms (including a reference to a "means") used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any component which performs the specified function of the described component (i.e., that is functionally equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary embodiments of the invention. In addition, while a particular feature of the invention may have been disclosed with respect to only one of several embodiments, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other embodiments as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application. Furthermore, to the extent that the term "includes" is used in either the detailed description and the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term "comprising." INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The apparatus and associated method may be used in the field of semiconductor process development to characterize thin film thicknesses.

Claims: What is claimed is 1 A method (100) of determining a thickness of a film (130), compπsmg the steps of identifying (114) a depth (hi) associated with a defect (106) m an underlymg material (108), forming (116) the film (130) over the underlying material (108), identifying (118) a depth (h 2 ) associated with the defect (106) in the film (130), and using (124) the identified depths (h„ h 2 ) to determine the film thickness (t F ) 2 A method (100) of determining a film thickness, compπsmg the steps of identifying (110) a plurality of defects (106) associated with an underlying material (108), determining (114) a depth (h,) associated with each of the plurality of defects (106) m the underlymg material (108), forming (116) the film (130) over the underlymg material (108), determining (118) a depth (h 2 ) associated with each of the plurality of defects (106) in the film (108), and usmg (124) the identified depths (h„ h 2 ) to determine the film thickness (130) 3 The method (100) of claim 2, wherem identifying (110) the plurality of defects (106) associated with the underlymg material (108) comprises inspecting (102) the underlymg material (108) with an inspection tool (208) 4 The method (100) of claim 2, wherein usmg the identified depths (124) to determine the film thickness (t F ) further comprises the steps of subtracting the depth (h 2 ) associated with each of the plurality of defects (106) m the film (130) from the correspondmg depth (h,) associated with each of the plurality of defects (106) in the underlymg material (108), respectively, to calculate a film thickness value at locations correspondmg to each of the defects (106), and calculating an average film thickness using the film thickness at the plurality of locations 5 The method (100) of claim 2, wherein determining the depth (t F ) associated with each of the plurality of defects in the underlying material (106) or the film (130) comprises scanning locations correspondmg to each of the defects (106) in the underlying material (108) or the film (130) with a tip of an atomic force microscope, wherem the tip experiences a deflection at each of the defect locations (106), and calculating the depth (h„ h 2 ) at each of the defect locations using the deflection of the tip 6 The method (100) of claim 2, further compπsmg determining (120) whether the film is generally conformal with respect to the plurality of defects, and discontinuing (122) the method if the film is not generally conformal. 7 The method ( 100) of claim 6, wherem determining (120) whether the film ( 130) is generally conformal comprises: determining a width (W,) associated with one or more of the plurality of defects (106) in the underlying material (108), determining a width (W 2 ) associated with one or more of the plurality of defects (106) in the film (130), and determining whether the defect width (W 2 ) associated with the one or more defects (106) in the film (130) is within a predetermined range or percentage of the defect width (W,) associated with one or more defects (106) m the underlymg material (108) 8. A system (200) for determining a film thickness, compπsing: a defect inspection tool (204) operable to identify a location of one or more defects m an underlymg material (108), a topography measurement tool (208) operable to measure a change m topography of a surface, and a controller (206) operably coupled to the defect inspection tool (204) and the topography measurement tool (208), wherein the controller (206) is adapted to receive location information from the defect mspection tool (204) relatmg to the one or more defects (106) and use the location information to generate and transmit one or more control signals to the topography measurement tool (208) to evaluate a topography of an underlying material (108) and a film (130) at the location coπesponding to the one or more defects (106) to thereby generate topography information, and further wherein the controller (206) is adapted to receive the topography information from the topography measurement tool (208) and determine a film thickness (t F ) usmg the topography information. 9. The system (200) of claim 8, wherem the controller (206) is further adapted to calculate a depth (h,) of the one or more defects (106) m the underlymg material (108) and a depth (h 2 ) of the one or more defects m the film (130) using the topography information and calculate a film thickness (t F ) at each of the one or more defects by subtracting the depth of the one or more defects in the film (130) from the depth of the one or more defects m the underlying material (108) 10. The system (200) of claim 8, wherein the topography measurement tool (208) is further operable to measure a width (W„ W 2 ) associated with one or more defects (106) in the underlying material (108) and the film (130), and wherein the controller (206) is further adapted to utilize the defect width data (W„ W 2 ) to determine whether the film (130) generally is conformal with respect to the one or more defects (106).

Inventors: PHAN KHOI A, RANGARAJAN BHARATH, SINGH BHANWAR, PHAN, KHOI, A., RANGARAJAN, BHARATH, SINGH, BHANWAR
Applicants: ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES INC, ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, INC.
Application year: 2001
Main classification: G01B7
IPC codes: G01B5, G01B7, G01B21, G12B21, H01L21