Methods for aligning a particle beam and performing a non-contact electrical measurement on a cell using a registration cell

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11328899-B2
Application number	US-202017061401-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 1, 2020
Priority date	Oct 1, 2019
Publication date	May 10, 2022
Grant date	May 10, 2022

Abstract

Systems, devices, and methods for performing a non-contact electrical measurement (NCEM) on a NCEM-enabled cell included in a NCEM-enabled cell vehicle may be configured to perform NCEMs while the NCEM-enabled cell vehicle is moving. The movement may be due to vibrations in the system and/or movement of a movable stage on which the NCEM-enabled cell vehicle is positioned. Position information for an electron beam column producing the electron beam performing the NCEMs and/or for the moving stage may be used to align the electron beam with targets on the NCEM-enabled cell vehicle while it is moving.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a recipe for a die included in a wafer, the die including a plurality of chips, each chip of the plurality of chips being divided into a plurality of tiles, each tile including a non-contact electronic measurement (NCEM)-enabled NCEM-enabled registration cell and a plurality of NCEM-enabled fill cells, the recipe including a position for the die within the wafer, a position of the NCEM-enabled registration cell, and a position of each NCEM-enabled cell of the plurality NCEM-enabled cells;
determining an expected position of a NCEM-enabled registration cell included a tile of the plurality of tiles;
directing an electron beam toward the NCEM-enabled registration cell;
receiving an indication of a response of the NCEM-enabled registration cell to the electron beam;
determining an actual position of the NCEM-enabled registration cell using the response;
aligning the electron beam using the actual position of the NCEM-enabled registration cell;
directing the aligned electron beam toward an NCEM-enabled fill cell of the plurality of NCEM-enabled fill cells;
receiving a response of the NCEM-enabled fill cell to the aligned electron beam; and
providing an indication of the response to a processor.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the NCEM-enabled registration cell comprises:
a substrate;
a power rail electrically coupled to a power supply and mechanically coupled to the substrate;
a ground rail electrically coupled to a ground and mechanically coupled to the substrate; and
a floating feature mechanically, but not electrically, coupled to the substrate, the floating feature being configured to provide an easily distinguishable feature when exposed to a non-contact electrical measurement.

3. A method comprising:
receiving a recipe for a die included in a wafer, each die of the plurality of chips being divided into a plurality of tiles, each tile including a NCEM-enabled registration cell and a plurality of non-contact electronic measurement (NCEM)-enabled fill cells, the recipe including a position for the die within the wafer and a position for each of the NCEM-enabled fill cell of the plurality of NCEM-enabled fill cells;
determining an expected position of a NCEM-enabled registration cell included in a tile of the plurality of tiles;
scanning the NCEM-enabled registration cell using an electron beam;
receiving an indication of a response of the NCEM-enabled registration cell to the scanning;
determining an actual position of the NCEM-enabled registration cell using the response;
aligning the electron beam using the actual position of the NCEM-enabled registration cell;
sequentially directing the aligned electron beam toward each of NCEM-enabled fill cells of the plurality of NCEM-enabled fill cells within the tile of the plurality of tiles;
receiving an indication of a response of each of the NCEM-enabled fill cells to the aligned electron beam; and
providing an indication of the response to a processor.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein responses of NCEM-enabled fill cells to the electron beam are received from a plurality of tiles of in an array of chips included in the wafer, each respective tile and chip of the array being configured to be identical to one another, the method further comprising:
comparing the received responses to one another to determine whether there are any outlying responses; and
providing a result of the comparison to a processor.

5. A method comprising:
receiving a recipe for a die included in a wafer, the die including a plurality of chips, each of the chips being divided into a plurality of tiles, each tile including a NCEM-enabled registration cell and a plurality of non-contact electronic measurement (NCEM)-enabled fill cells, the recipe including a position for the die within the wafer, contents of the wafer, and a position for the contents of the wafer;
receiving a selection of an array of chips included in the wafer to test using a non-contact electronic measurement (NCEM), each chip of the array being configured to be identical to one another;
identifying a target region in each of the chips included in the array,
directing an electron beam toward the target region for each chip in the array;
receiving an indication of a response of each target region to the electron beam;
comparing the received indications to one another to determine whether there are any outlying indications; and
providing a result of the comparison to a processor.

Assignees

• Pdf Solutions Inc

Inventors

• De Indranil
• Cheng Jeremy
• Sokollik Thomas
• Schwarz Yoram
• Lam Stephen
• Shen Xumin

Classifications

• H01J2237/20292

  Means for position and/or orientation registration · CPC title

• G01R31/2653

  using electron beams · CPC title

• H01J2237/24564

  Measurements of electric or magnetic variables, e.g. voltage, current, frequency · CPC title

• H01J37/20 Primary

  Means for supporting or positioning the object or the material; Means for adjusting diaphragms or lenses associated with the support · CPC title

• G01R31/306

  of printed or hybrid circuits · CPC title