Substrate processing method and substrate processing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11705374-B2
Application number	US-202117220435-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 1, 2021
Priority date	Apr 2, 2020
Publication date	Jul 18, 2023
Grant date	Jul 18, 2023

Abstract

A substrate processing method includes performing a post-processing on a substrate subjected to a pre-processing, in the multiple chambers, acquiring a characteristic value of the substrate after the post-processing for respective chambers, calculating an actual value being an estimated value of the characteristic value when a processing condition of the post-processing is adjusted such that a difference between the characteristic value and a target value becomes small, acquiring a correction residual amount being a difference between the actual value and the target value for each chamber, calculating an average value of correction residual amounts of all of the chambers, correcting the pre-processing condition based on the average of the correction residual amounts, correcting the post-processing condition for each chamber based on the average of the correction residual amounts and the correction residual amount for each chamber; and performing the pre-processing and the post-processing based on the corrected conditions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A substrate processing method of processing a plurality of substrates through a pre-processing process and a post-processing process, in which at least in the post-processing process, the plurality of substrates are processed in parallel in multiple chambers, the substrate processing method comprising:
performing the post-processing process on the plurality of substrates, which have been processed in the pre-processing process, in parallel in the multiple chambers;
acquiring a characteristic value of each of the substrates after performing the post-processing process for each of the chambers;
calculating an actual value, which is an estimated value of the characteristic value when a processing condition of the post-processing process is adjusted based on a difference between the characteristic value and a target value;
acquiring a correction residual amount, which is a difference between the actual value and the target value for each of the chambers;
calculating an average value of the correction residual amounts of all of the chambers;
correcting a processing condition of the pre-processing process based on the average value of the correction residual amounts;
correcting the processing condition of the post-processing process for each of the chambers based on the average value of the correction residual amounts and the correction residual amount for each of the chambers; and
performing the pre-processing process based on the corrected processing condition of the pre-processing process and performing the post-processing process based on the corrected processing condition of the post-processing process,
wherein the correcting the processing condition of the pre-processing process is performed with reference to a table in which the average value of the correction residual amounts stored in advance and the processing condition of the pre-processing process are associated with each other.

2. The substrate processing method of claim 1 , wherein the difference between the characteristic value and the target value is calculated in consideration of a variation in a processing result of the pre-processing process.

3. The substrate processing method of claim 2 , wherein the characteristic value is an average value of characteristic values of the plurality of substrates.

4. The substrate processing method of claim 3 , wherein, in the calculating the actual value, the actual value is estimated with reference to a table representing an amount of change in the characteristic value for a process parameter stored in advance.

5. A substrate processing method of processing a plurality of substrates through a pre-processing process and a post-processing process, in which at least in the post-processing process, the plurality of substrates are processed in parallel in multiple chambers, the substrate processing method comprising:
performing the post-processing process on the plurality of substrates, which have been processed in the pre-processing process, in parallel in the multiple chambers;
acquiring a characteristic value of each of the substrates after performing the post-processing process for each of the chambers;
calculating an actual value, which is an estimated value of the characteristic value when a processing condition of the post-processing process is adjusted based on a difference between the characteristic value and a target value;
acquiring a correction residual amount, which is a difference between the actual value and the target value for each of the chambers;
calculating an average value of the correction residual amounts of all of the chambers;
correcting a processing condition of the pre-processing process based on the average value of the correction residual amounts;
correcting the processing condition of the post-processing process for each of the chambers based on the average value of the correction residual amounts and the correction residual amount for each of the chambers; and
performing the pre-processing process based on the corrected processing condition of the pre-processing process and performing the post-processing process based on the corrected processing condition of the post-processing process,
wherein the difference between the characteristic value and the target value is calculated in consideration of a variation in a processing result of the pre-processing process,
wherein the characteristic value is an average value of characteristic values of the plurality of substrates,
wherein, in the calculating the actual value, the actual value is estimated with reference to a table representing an amount of change in the characteristic value for a process parameter stored in advance, and
wherein the correcting the processing condition of the pre-processing process is performed with reference to a table in which the average value of the correction residual amounts stored in advance and the processing condition of the pre-processing process are associated with each other.

6. The substrate processing method of claim 5 , wherein the correcting the processing condition of the post-processing process is performed with reference to the table representing the amount of change in the characteristic value for the process parameter stored in advance.

7. The substrate processing method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic value is an average value of characteristic values of the plurality of substrates.

8. The substrate processing method of claim 1 , wherein, in the calculating the actual value, the actual value is estimated with reference to a table representing an amount of change in the characteristic value for a process parameter stored in advance.

9. The substrate processing method of claim 1 , wherein the correcting the processing condition of the post-processing process is performed with reference to a table representing an amount of change in the characteristic value for a process parameter stored in advance.

10. A substrate processing apparatus comprising a pre-processing apparatus, a post-processing apparatus, and a controller,
wherein the controller is configured to execute the substrate processing method according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Tokyo Electron Ltd

Inventors

• Takayoshi Joji
• Sato Hidehiko
• Kudoh Tomoyuki
• Mochizuki Hiroaki

Classifications

• H10P72/0604

  Process monitoring, e.g. flow or thickness monitoring · CPC title

• H10P74/23 Primary

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

• H10P74/203

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

• H10P50/71

  using masks for conductive or resistive materials · CPC title

• H10P50/266

  by vapour etching only · CPC title