Determining locations of suspected defects

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11301987-B2
Application number	US-202016808111-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 3, 2020
Priority date	Mar 3, 2020
Publication date	Apr 12, 2022
Grant date	Apr 12, 2022

Abstract

A method, a non-transitory computer readable medium and a detection system for determining locations of suspected defects of a substrate.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for determining locations of suspected defects of a substrate, the method comprises:
determining, by a charged particle review system (CPRS), CPRS determined locations of a group of suspected defects; wherein the determining is based at least in part on optical wafer inspection system (OWIS) determined locations of the group of suspected defects; wherein the suspected defects of the group are only a part of the suspected defects of the substrate;
for each permutation of suspected defects out of multiple permutations of suspected defects, calculating a permutation related mapping to provide multiple permutation relation mappings; wherein each permutation relation mapping maps CPRS determined locations of the suspected defects of the permutation, to OWIS determined locations of the suspected defects of the permutation; wherein each permutation of suspected defects is formed by subgroup of the group of suspected defects;
selecting a selected permutation related mapping;
determining whether to use the selected permutation related mapping for converting the OWIS determined locations of the suspected defects of the substrate to CPRS determined locations of the suspected defects of the substrate; and
converting the OWIS determined locations of the suspected defects of the substrate to CPRS determined locations of the suspected defects of the substrate, by using the selected permutation related mapping, when determining to use the selected permutation related mapping.

2. The method according to claim 1 comprising increasing a number of suspected defects within the group and jumping to the determining of the CPRS location of the group, when determining not to use the selected permutation related mapping.

3. The method according to claim 1 comprising determining a certainty level of the selected permutation related mapping; and wherein the determining of whether to use the selected permutation related mapping is based on the certainty level of the selected permutation related mapping.

4. The method according to claim 1 comprising calculating a score for each of the multiple permutation related mappings to provide multiple scores; and selecting the selected permutation based on the multiple scores.

5. The method according to claim 4 comprising applying each of the multiple permutation related mappings on OWIS determined locations of the group of suspected defects to provide estimated multiple CPRS determined locations of the group of suspected defects; and wherein the calculating of the score for each of the multiple permutation related mappings is based on the multiple CPRS determined locations of the group of suspected defects.

6. The method according to claim 1 comprising calculating, for each permutation of suspected defects out of the multiple permutations of suspected defects, an additional permutation related mapping to provide multiple additional permutation related mappings.

7. The method according to claim 6 wherein for at least one permutation of the multiple permutations, an additional permutation related mapping of the permutation differs by complexity from the permutation related mapping of the permutation.

8. The method according to claim 6 wherein for at least one permutation of the multiple permutations, an additional permutation related mapping of the permutation differs by a number of sources of location errors from the permutation related mapping of the permutation.

9. The method according to claim 6 comprising calculating a score for each of the multiple permutation related mappings to provide multiple scores; calculating a score for each of the additional multiple permutation related mappings to provide additional multiple scores; and selecting the selected permutation based on the multiple scores and on the additional multiple scores.

10. The method according to claim 1 comprising reviewing multiple suspected defects; selecting, based on one or more selection criteria, suspected defects of the multiple to provide the group of suspected defects.

11. The method according to claim 10 comprising searching for the multiple suspected defects in different regions of the substrate.

12. A charged particle review system (CPRS), comprising:
a memory unit that is configured to store optical wafer inspection system (OWIS) determined locations of a group of suspected defects of a substrate;
a processor that is configured to:
determine CPRS determined locations of a group of suspected defects; wherein the determining is based at least in part on the OWIS determined locations of the group of suspected defects; wherein the suspected defects of the group are only a part of the suspected defects of the substrate;
for each permutation of suspected defects out of multiple permutations of suspected defects, calculate a permutation related mapping to provide multiple permutation relation mappings; wherein each permutation relation mapping maps CPRS determined locations of the suspected defects of the permutation, to OWIS determined locations of the suspected defects of the permutation; wherein each permutation of suspected defects is formed by subgroup of the group of suspected defects;
select a selected permutation related mapping;
determine whether to use the selected permutation related mapping for converting the OWIS determined locations of the suspected defects of the substrate to CPRS determined locations of the suspected defects of the substrate; and
convert the OWIS determined locations of the suspected defects of the substrate to CPRS determined locations of the suspected defects of the substrate, by using the selected permutation related mapping, when determining to use the selected permutation related mapping.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium that stores instructions for:
determining, by a charged particle review system (CPRS), CPRS determined locations of a group of suspected defects of a substrate; wherein the determining is based at least in part on optical wafer inspection system (OWIS) determined locations of the group of suspected defects; wherein the suspected defects of the group are only a part of suspected defects of the substrate;
for each permutation of suspected defects out of multiple permutations of suspected defects, calculating a permutation related mapping to provide multiple permutation relation mappings; wherein each permutation relation mapping maps CPRS determined locations of the suspected defects of the permutation, to OWIS determined locations of the suspected defects of the permutation; wherein each permutation of suspected defects is formed by subgroup of the group of suspected defects;
selecting a selected permutation related mapping;
determining whether to use the selected permutation related mapping for converting the OWIS determined locations of the suspected defects of the substrate to CPRS determined locations of the suspected defects of the substrate; and
converting the OWIS determined locations of the suspected defects of the substrate to CPRS determined locations of the suspected defects of the substrate, by using the selected permutation related mapping, when determining to use the selected permutation related mapping.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Israel Ltd

Inventors

• Greenberg Ofir
• Segal Dan
• Youn Dae Hwan
• Ben-Shlomo Tal

Classifications

• G06T2207/30148

  Semiconductor; IC; Wafer · CPC title

• G01Q30/02 Primary

  Non-SPM analysing devices, e.g. SEM [Scanning Electron Microscope], spectrometer or optical microscope · CPC title

• G01Q60/44

  SICM [Scanning Ion-Conductance Microscopy] or apparatus therefor, e.g. SICM probes · CPC title

• G01Q60/60

  SECM [Scanning Electro-Chemical Microscopy] or apparatus therefor, e.g. SECM probes · CPC title

• G01N2223/646

  flaws, defects · CPC title