For several years, integrated scatterometry has held the promise of wafer-level process control. While integrated scatterometry on lithography systems is being used in manufacturing, production implementation on etch systems is just beginning to occur. Because gate patterning is so important to yield, gate linewidth control is viewed by many as the most critical application for integrated scatterometry on etch systems. IBM has implemented integrated scatterometry on its polysilicon gate etch systems to control gate linewidth for its 90 nm node SOI-based microprocessors in its 300 mm manufacturing facility. This paper shows the performance of the scatterometry system and the equipment-based APC system used to control the etch process. Some of the APC methodology is described, as well as sampling strategies, throughput considerations, and scatterometry models. Results reveal that the scatterometry measurements correlate well to CD-SEM measurements before and after etch, and also correlate to electrical measurements. Finally, the improvement in linewidth distribution following the implementation of feedforward and feedback control in full manufacturing is shown.
As feature geometries decrease, the budgeted error for process variations decreases as well. Keeping these variations within budget is especially important in the area of gate linewidth control. Because of this, wafer-to-wafer control of gate linewidth becomes increasingly necessary. This paper shows results from 300 mm wafers with 90 nm technology that were trimmed during the gate formation process on an etch platform. After the process that opened the gate hard mask and stripped the resist, the wafers were measured using both an integrated scatterometer and a stand-alone CD-SEM. The measurements were then used to determine the appropriate amount to be trimmed by the Chemical Oxide Removal (COR) chamber that is also integrated onto the etch system. After the wafers were trimmed and etched, they were again measured on the integrated scatterometer and stand-alone CD-SEM. With the CD-SEM as the Reference Measurement System (RMS), Total Measurement Uncertainty (TMU) analysis was used to optimize the Optical Digital Profilometry (ODP) model, thus facilitating a significant reduction in gate linewidth variation. Because the measurement uncertainty of the scatterometer was reduced to a level approaching or below that of the RMS, an improvement to TMU analysis was developed. This improvement quantifies methods for determining the measurement uncertainty of the RMS under a variety of situations.
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