Method for monitoring nanometric structures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10731979-B2
Application number	US-201815870622-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 12, 2018
Priority date	Jan 12, 2018
Publication date	Aug 4, 2020
Grant date	Aug 4, 2020

Abstract

A method for monitoring a first nanometric structure formed by a multiple patterning process, the method may include performing a first plurality of measurements to provide a first plurality of measurement results; wherein the performing of the first plurality of measurements comprises illuminating first plurality of locations of a first sidewall of the first nanometric structure by oblique charged particle beams of different tilt angles; and processing, by a hardware processor, the first plurality of measurement results to determine a first attribute of the first nanometric structure.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for monitoring a first nanometric structure formed by a multiple patterning process, the method comprising:
performing a first plurality of measurements to provide a first plurality of measurement results by illuminating a first plurality of locations of a first sidewall of the first nanometric structure with oblique charged particle beams at different tilt angles;
receiving a first tilt angle of the different tilt angles from which a first illumination beam is used to illuminate a particular location of the first plurality of locations of the first sidewall and a second tilt angle of the different tilt angles from which a second illumination beam is used to illuminate another location of the first plurality of locations of the first sidewall of the first nanometric structure; and
processing, by a hardware processor, the first plurality of measurement results to determine a first attribute related to height uniformity of the first nanometric structure based on the first tilt angle from which the first illumination beam is used to illuminate the particular location and the second tilt angle from which the second illumination beam is used to illuminate the another location, and a difference between a measurement of the first plurality of measurements corresponding to an illumination of the particular location of the first sidewall of the first nanometric structure and another measurement of the first plurality of measurements corresponding to an illumination of the another location of the first sidewall of the first nanometric structure.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first attribute of the first nanometric structure is the height uniformity of the first sidewall.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a second attribute of the first nanometric structure is a roughness of one or more edges of the first nanometric structure.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
performing a second plurality of measurements to provide a second plurality of measurement results by illuminating a second plurality of locations of a second sidewall of a second nanometric structure with oblique charged particle beams at different tilt angles; and
processing, by the hardware processor, the second plurality of measurement results to determine a first attribute of the second nanometric structure.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the first attribute of the second nanometric structure is the height uniformity of the second sidewall.

6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein a second attribute of the second nanometric structure is a roughness of one or more edges of the second nanometric structure.

7. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising:
processing the first plurality of measurement results and the second plurality of measurement results to determine a spatial relationship between the first nanometric structure and the second nanometric structure.

8. A non-transitory computer storage medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving a first plurality of measurement results that were obtained from a first plurality of measurements corresponding to an illumination of a first plurality of locations of a first sidewall of a first nanometric structure with oblique charged particle beams at different tilt angles;
receiving a first tilt angle of the different tilt angles from which a first illumination beam is used to illuminate a particular location of the first plurality of locations of the first sidewall and a second tilt angle of the different tilt angles from which a second illumination beam is used to illuminate another location of the first plurality of locations of the first sidewall of the first nanometric structure; and
processing the first plurality of measurement results to determine a first attribute related to height uniformity of the first nanometric structure based on the first tilt angle from which the first illumination beam is used to illuminate the particular location and the second tilt angle from which the second illumination beam is used to illuminate the another location, and a difference between a measurement of the first plurality of measurements corresponding to an illumination of the particular location of the first sidewall of the first nanometric structure and another measurement of the first plurality of measurements corresponding to an illumination of the another location of the first sidewall of the first nanometric structure.

9. The non-transitory computer storage medium according to claim 8 , wherein the first attribute of the first nanometric structure is the height uniformity of the first sidewall.

10. The non-transitory computer storage medium according to claim 8 , wherein a second attribute of the first nanometric structure is a roughness of one or more edges of the first nanometric structure.

11. The non-transitory computer storage medium according to claim 8 , the operations further comprising:
receiving a second plurality of measurement results that were obtained from a second plurality of measurements corresponding to an illumination of a second plurality of locations of a second sidewall of a second nanometric structure with oblique charged particle beams at different tilt angles; and
processing the second plurality of measurement results to determine a first attribute of the second nanometric structure.

12. The non-transitory computer storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein the first attribute of the second nanometric structure is the height uniformity of the second sidewall.

13. The non-transitory computer storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein a second attribute of the second nanometric structure is a roughness of one or more edges of the second nanometric structure.

14. A system comprising:
a memory; and
a processor, operatively coupled with the memory, to:
receive a first plurality of measurement results that were obtained from a first plurality of measurements corresponding to an illumination of a first plurality of locations of a first sidewall of a first nanometric structure with oblique charged particle beams at different tilt angles;
receive a first tilt angle of the different tilt angles from which a first illumination beam is used to illuminate a particular location of the first plurality of locations of the first sidewall and a second tilt angle of the different tilt angles from which a second illumination beam is used to illuminate another location of the first plurality of locations of the first sidewall of the first nanometric structure; and
process the first plurality of measurement results to determine a first attribute related to height uniformity of the first nanometric structure based on the first tilt angle from which the first illumination beam is used to illuminate the particular location and the second tilt angle from which the second illumination beam is used to illuminate the another location, and a difference between a measurement of the first plurality of measurements corresponding to an illumination of the particular location of the first sidewall of the first nanometric structure and another measurement of the first plurality of measurements corresponding to an illumination of the another location of the first sidewall of the first nanometric structure.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the first attribute of the first nanometric structure is the height uniformity of the first sidewall.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein a second attribute of the fi

Assignees

• Applied Materials Israel Ltd

Inventors

• Levi Shimon
• Schwarzband Ishai
• Kris Roman

Classifications

• H10P74/27

  Structural arrangements therefor · CPC title

• H10P74/23

  characterised by multiple measurements, corrections, marking or sorting processes · CPC title

• H10P74/203 Primary

  Structural properties, e.g. testing or measuring thicknesses, line widths, warpage, bond strengths or physical defects · CPC title

• G06F11/30

  Monitoring · CPC title

• G01B15/00 Primary

  Measuring arrangements characterised by the use of electromagnetic waves or particle radiation, e.g. by the use of microwaves, X-rays, gamma rays or electrons (characterised by the use of optical techniques G01B9/00, G01B11/00) · CPC title