Substrate processing system and substrate processing method, and device manufacturing method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10775708-B2
Application number	US-201715673260-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 9, 2017
Priority date	Feb 23, 2015
Publication date	Sep 15, 2020
Grant date	Sep 15, 2020

Abstract

A lithography system is provided with: a measurement device measuring position information of marks on a substrate held in a first stage; and an exposure apparatus on a second stage, the substrate for which the position information measurement for the marks has been completed, performs alignment measurement to measure position information for part of marks selected from among the marks on the substrate, and performs exposure. The measurement device measures position information of many marks on the substrate to obtain higher-degree components of correction amounts of an arrangement of divided areas, and the exposure apparatus measures position information of a small number of marks on the substrate to obtain lower-degree components of the correction amounts of the arrangement of the divided areas and exposes the plurality of divided areas while controlling the position of the substrate by using the obtained lower-degree components and the higher-degree components obtained by the measurement device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A substrate processing system in which a substrate having a plurality of divided areas formed along with at least a mark serves as a processing target, comprising:
a measurement device that has a first stage which can hold the substrate, the device measuring position information of a plurality of the marks on the substrate held on the first stage; and
an exposure apparatus that has a second stage on which the substrate having completed measurement of position information of the plurality of marks by the measurement device is mounted, the apparatus performing a measurement operation of measuring position information of part of the marks of the plurality of marks on the substrate mounted on the second stage and an exposure operation of exposing the plurality of divided areas with an energy beam, wherein
the measurement device obtains a first information that includes a nonlinear deformation component of an arrangement of the plurality of divided areas on the substrate, using the position information of the plurality of marks that has been measured, and
the exposure apparatus obtains a second information that includes a nonlinear deformation component of an arrangement of the plurality of divided areas on the substrate using the position information of part of the marks that has been measured, and controls position of the second stage on the exposure operation based on the first information obtained by the measurement device and the second information.

2. The substrate processing system according to claim 1 , wherein
the measurement device obtains a relation between a correction amount with respect to a reference value of an arrangement of the plurality of divided areas on the substrate from a model formula consisting of a first polynomial expression of a predetermined degree using the position information of the plurality of marks, and
the exposure apparatus obtains a relation between a correction amount with respect to a reference value of an arrangement of the plurality of divided areas on the substrate from a model formula consisting of a second polynomial expression of a predetermined degree using the position information of part of the marks.

3. The substrate processing system according to claim 2 , wherein
the plurality of divided areas are formed on the substrate arranged in a matrix state, and the correction amount of the arrangement of the plurality of divided areas is obtained based on a model formula consisting of a polynomial expression related to X, Y where a relation between design position coordinates X, Y in each divided area and the correction amount of position coordinates of the divided area is expressed in a substrate coordinate system, the system being a two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system whose axial directions are an X-axis direction being a row direction of the matrix and a Y-axis direction being a column direction of the matrix with a predetermined reference point on the substrate serving as an origin, and
the measurement device obtains coefficients of higher-degree terms of the model formula by statistical calculation, and
the exposure apparatus obtains coefficients of lower-degree terms of the model formula by statistical calculation, and obtains the correction amount of the arrangement of the plurality of divided areas on the substrate, based on a model formula after determination of coefficients where the coefficients of the lower-degree terms and the coefficients of the higher-degree terms have been substituted into the model formula.

4. The substrate processing system according to claim 3 , wherein
the lower-degree term is a term having a degree of 1 or less, the higher-degree term is a term having a degree of two or more.

5. The substrate processing system according to claim 3 , wherein
the exposure apparatus estimates deformation of the plurality of divided areas according to values obtained by partial differentiation of X and Y in the model formula after the determination of coefficients.

6. The substrate processing system according to claim 5 , wherein
the exposure apparatus is a scanning exposure apparatus that relatively moves a mask stage on which a mask having a pattern formed is held synchronously with the second stage with respect to a projection optical system and transfers the pattern onto the divided areas on the substrate, and
the exposure apparatus adjusts at least one of a relative scanning angle between the mask stage and the second stage, scanning speed ratio, relative position of at least one of the mask stage and the second stage with respect to the projection optical system, image forming characteristic of the projection optical system, and wavelength of exposure light during the scanning exposure so that a projection image of the pattern by the projection optical system is deformed in accordance with the estimated shape of the divided areas after deformation.

7. The substrate processing system according to claim 3 , wherein
the exposure apparatus obtains a grid being the arrangement of the plurality of divided areas on the substrate based on the correction amount obtained and design values of the arrangement of the plurality of divided areas on the substrate, approximates the grid to a model formula of degree 1 , and estimates deformation of the plurality of divided areas according to a coefficient of the model formula.

8. The substrate processing system according to claim 7 , wherein
the exposure apparatus is a scanning exposure apparatus that relatively moves a mask stage on which a mask having a pattern formed is held synchronously with the second stage with respect to a projection optical system and transfers the pattern onto the divided areas on the substrate, and
the exposure apparatus adjusts at least one of a relative scanning angle between the mask stage and the second stage, scanning speed ratio, relative position of at least one of the mask stage and the second stage with respect to the projection optical system, image forming characteristic of the projection optical system, and wavelength of exposure light during the scanning exposure so that a projection image of the pattern by the projection optical system is deformed in accordance with the estimated shape of the divided areas after deformation.

9. The substrate processing system according to claim 1 , wherein
the measurement device comprises
a mark detection system that detects the mark on the substrate held on the first stage and outputs a detection signal,
a position measurement system that measures position information of the first stage with respect to the mark detection system,
a drive system that moves the first stage, and a controller, while controlling movement by the drive system of the first stage based on the position information measured by the position measurement system, acquires the position information by the position measurement system and obtains position information of the plurality of marks on the substrate held on the first stage using the mark detection system.

10. The substrate processing system according to claim 9 , wherein
the first stage is movable with respect to a base member, and,
the position measurement system includes a first position measurement system that measures a first position information of the stage with respect to the base member and a second position measurement system that measures a second position information relative between the mark detection system and the base member.

11. The substrate processing system according to claim 10 , wherein
the first position measurement system having one of a measurement surface that has a grating section and a head section that irradiates a beam on

Assignees

• Nikon Corp

Inventors

• Shibazaki Yuichi

Classifications

• H10P72/50

  for positioning, orientation or alignment · CPC title

• G03F7/70783

  Handling stress or warp of chucks, masks or workpieces, e.g. to compensate for imaging errors or considerations related to warpage of masks or workpieces due to their own weight · CPC title

• G03F7/70716 Primary

  Stages · CPC title

• G03F9/7034

  Leveling · CPC title

• G03F9/7073

  Alignment marks and their environment (marks specific to masks G03F1/42; marks specific to molds or stamps G03F7/0002; overlay marks G03F7/70633; marks applied to semiconductor devices H10W46/00) · CPC title