WO1998005066A3 - Methods and apparatus for the in-process detection and measurement of thin film layers - Google Patents

Methods and apparatus for the in-process detection and measurement of thin film layers Download PDF

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Publication number
WO1998005066A3
WO1998005066A3 PCT/US1997/013373 US9713373W WO9805066A3 WO 1998005066 A3 WO1998005066 A3 WO 1998005066A3 US 9713373 W US9713373 W US 9713373W WO 9805066 A3 WO9805066 A3 WO 9805066A3
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
fiber optic
optic cable
wafer
reflected
probe
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US1997/013373
Other languages
French (fr)
Other versions
WO1998005066A2 (en
Inventor
Paul Holzapfel
Robert F Allen
Warren Lin
James Schlueter
Chris Karlsrud
Original Assignee
Speedfam Corp
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Priority claimed from US08/798,803 external-priority patent/US5872633A/en
Application filed by Speedfam Corp filed Critical Speedfam Corp
Publication of WO1998005066A2 publication Critical patent/WO1998005066A2/en
Publication of WO1998005066A3 publication Critical patent/WO1998005066A3/en

Links

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01B—MEASURING LENGTH, THICKNESS OR SIMILAR LINEAR DIMENSIONS; MEASURING ANGLES; MEASURING AREAS; MEASURING IRREGULARITIES OF SURFACES OR CONTOURS
    • G01B11/00—Measuring arrangements characterised by the use of optical techniques
    • G01B11/02—Measuring arrangements characterised by the use of optical techniques for measuring length, width or thickness
    • G01B11/06—Measuring arrangements characterised by the use of optical techniques for measuring length, width or thickness for measuring thickness ; e.g. of sheet material
    • G01B11/0616—Measuring arrangements characterised by the use of optical techniques for measuring length, width or thickness for measuring thickness ; e.g. of sheet material of coating
    • G01B11/0625—Measuring arrangements characterised by the use of optical techniques for measuring length, width or thickness for measuring thickness ; e.g. of sheet material of coating with measurement of absorption or reflection
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
    • B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
    • B24B37/00—Lapping machines or devices; Accessories
    • B24B37/005—Control means for lapping machines or devices
    • B24B37/013—Devices or means for detecting lapping completion
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
    • B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
    • B24B49/00—Measuring or gauging equipment for controlling the feed movement of the grinding tool or work; Arrangements of indicating or measuring equipment, e.g. for indicating the start of the grinding operation
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L22/00—Testing or measuring during manufacture or treatment; Reliability measurements, i.e. testing of parts without further processing to modify the parts as such; Structural arrangements therefor
    • H01L22/20—Sequence of activities consisting of a plurality of measurements, corrections, marking or sorting steps
    • H01L22/26—Acting in response to an ongoing measurement without interruption of processing, e.g. endpoint detection, in-situ thickness measurement
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L22/00—Testing or measuring during manufacture or treatment; Reliability measurements, i.e. testing of parts without further processing to modify the parts as such; Structural arrangements therefor
    • H01L22/10—Measuring as part of the manufacturing process
    • H01L22/12—Measuring as part of the manufacturing process for structural parameters, e.g. thickness, line width, refractive index, temperature, warp, bond strength, defects, optical inspection, electrical measurement of structural dimensions, metallurgic measurement of diffusions

Abstract

The present invention provides methods and apparatus which permits in-process, in-situ, substantially real time measurement of the actual thickness of a surface layer of a work piece, e.g., a semiconductor wafer. A probe (316) is disposed proximate to the outer perimeter of a polishing pad (126) on a CMP table, such that the probe establishes optical contact with the wafer surface (304) as a portion of the wafer extends beyond the outer perimeter (330) of the polishing pad (126). A nozzle (312) may be provided to apply a stream of compressed air at the disk surface under inspection to thereby remove excess slurry from the local region of the workpiece being inspected. A broad band light source (322) is employed in conjunction with a fiber optic cable (318) to direct light at the wafer surface. A bifurcated probe is employed such that the light applied to the workpiece surface is reflected back to and captured by a corresponding optical sensor connected to a fiber optic cable (320). The captured reflected light received by the receptor sensor and fiber optic cable assembly is applied to a photospectrum meter (324) which analyzes the reflected light. An output signal from the photospectrum meter is transmitted to a processor (326) which includes a smart algorithm configured to calculate the thickness of the surface layer. Alternatively, the reflective characteristics of the semiconductor layers may affect the nature of the reflected signal; changes in the reflected signal can be detected to indicate when a metallic layer has been removed from an oxide layer.
PCT/US1997/013373 1996-07-26 1997-07-23 Methods and apparatus for the in-process detection and measurement of thin film layers WO1998005066A2 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US68771096A 1996-07-26 1996-07-26
US08/687,710 1996-07-26
US08/798,803 US5872633A (en) 1996-07-26 1997-02-12 Methods and apparatus for detecting removal of thin film layers during planarization
US08/798,803 1997-07-16

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO1998005066A2 WO1998005066A2 (en) 1998-02-05
WO1998005066A3 true WO1998005066A3 (en) 1998-03-05

Family

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Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/US1997/013373 WO1998005066A2 (en) 1996-07-26 1997-07-23 Methods and apparatus for the in-process detection and measurement of thin film layers

Country Status (2)

Country Link
TW (1) TW386276B (en)
WO (1) WO1998005066A2 (en)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8694145B2 (en) 2001-06-19 2014-04-08 Applied Materials, Inc. Feedback control of a chemical mechanical polishing device providing manipulation of removal rate profiles

Families Citing this family (15)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6106662A (en) * 1998-06-08 2000-08-22 Speedfam-Ipec Corporation Method and apparatus for endpoint detection for chemical mechanical polishing
US6352466B1 (en) 1998-08-31 2002-03-05 Micron Technology, Inc. Method and apparatus for wireless transfer of chemical-mechanical planarization measurements
US6714300B1 (en) * 1998-09-28 2004-03-30 Therma-Wave, Inc. Optical inspection equipment for semiconductor wafers with precleaning
US6628397B1 (en) 1999-09-15 2003-09-30 Kla-Tencor Apparatus and methods for performing self-clearing optical measurements
US6671051B1 (en) 1999-09-15 2003-12-30 Kla-Tencor Apparatus and methods for detecting killer particles during chemical mechanical polishing
US6861619B1 (en) 2000-02-07 2005-03-01 Therma-Wave, Inc. Method and apparatus for preparing semiconductor wafers for measurement
US6261853B1 (en) 2000-02-07 2001-07-17 Therma-Wave, Inc. Method and apparatus for preparing semiconductor wafers for measurement
US6491569B2 (en) 2001-04-19 2002-12-10 Speedfam-Ipec Corporation Method and apparatus for using optical reflection data to obtain a continuous predictive signal during CMP
US6676482B2 (en) 2001-04-20 2004-01-13 Speedfam-Ipec Corporation Learning method and apparatus for predictive determination of endpoint during chemical mechanical planarization using sparse sampling
US6514775B2 (en) 2001-06-29 2003-02-04 Kla-Tencor Technologies Corporation In-situ end point detection for semiconductor wafer polishing
KR100434189B1 (en) 2002-03-21 2004-06-04 삼성전자주식회사 Apparatus and method for chemically and mechanically polishing semiconductor wafer
JP2005203729A (en) 2003-12-19 2005-07-28 Ebara Corp Substrate polishing apparatus
US20060079007A1 (en) 2004-10-08 2006-04-13 Applied Materials, Inc. System, method, and medium for an endpoint detection scheme for copper low-dielectric damascene structures for improved dielectric and copper loss
US8917398B2 (en) 2011-08-28 2014-12-23 G & D Innovative Analysis Ltd. Method and apparatus for supervision of optical material production
US9573243B2 (en) 2014-11-04 2017-02-21 Headway Technologies, Inc. Method for adaptive feedback controlled polishing

Citations (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5240552A (en) * 1991-12-11 1993-08-31 Micron Technology, Inc. Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) of a semiconductor wafer using acoustical waves for in-situ end point detection
EP0663265A1 (en) * 1993-12-22 1995-07-19 International Business Machines Corporation In-situ endpoint detection and process monitoring method and apparatus for chemical-mechanical polishing
US5486129A (en) * 1993-08-25 1996-01-23 Micron Technology, Inc. System and method for real-time control of semiconductor a wafer polishing, and a polishing head
WO1996016436A1 (en) * 1994-11-18 1996-05-30 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Method of making a chemical-mechanical polishing slurry and the polishing slurry
EP0718595A2 (en) * 1994-12-21 1996-06-26 Hughes Aircraft Company Automatic rejection of diffraction effects in thin film metrology
EP0738561A1 (en) * 1995-03-28 1996-10-23 Applied Materials, Inc. Apparatus and method for in-situ endpoint detection and monitoring for chemical mechanical polishing operations
US5609511A (en) * 1994-04-14 1997-03-11 Hitachi, Ltd. Polishing method

Patent Citations (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5240552A (en) * 1991-12-11 1993-08-31 Micron Technology, Inc. Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) of a semiconductor wafer using acoustical waves for in-situ end point detection
US5486129A (en) * 1993-08-25 1996-01-23 Micron Technology, Inc. System and method for real-time control of semiconductor a wafer polishing, and a polishing head
EP0663265A1 (en) * 1993-12-22 1995-07-19 International Business Machines Corporation In-situ endpoint detection and process monitoring method and apparatus for chemical-mechanical polishing
US5609511A (en) * 1994-04-14 1997-03-11 Hitachi, Ltd. Polishing method
WO1996016436A1 (en) * 1994-11-18 1996-05-30 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Method of making a chemical-mechanical polishing slurry and the polishing slurry
EP0718595A2 (en) * 1994-12-21 1996-06-26 Hughes Aircraft Company Automatic rejection of diffraction effects in thin film metrology
EP0738561A1 (en) * 1995-03-28 1996-10-23 Applied Materials, Inc. Apparatus and method for in-situ endpoint detection and monitoring for chemical mechanical polishing operations

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8694145B2 (en) 2001-06-19 2014-04-08 Applied Materials, Inc. Feedback control of a chemical mechanical polishing device providing manipulation of removal rate profiles

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
WO1998005066A2 (en) 1998-02-05
TW386276B (en) 2000-04-01

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