Film thickness measuring apparatus and film thickness measuring method, and film forming system and film forming method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11939665-B2
Application number	US-202117184089-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 24, 2021
Priority date	Mar 10, 2020
Publication date	Mar 26, 2024
Grant date	Mar 26, 2024

Abstract

A film thickness measurement apparatus includes: a stage that places a substrate having a film formed thereon and measures a thickness of the film in-situ in a film forming apparatus; a film thickness meter including a light emitter that emits light toward the substrate disposed on the stage and a light receiving sensor that receives the light reflected by the substrate for measuring the thickness of the film in-situ; a moving mechanism including a multi-joint arm that moves an irradiation point of the light on the substrate; a distance meter that measures a distance between the light receiving sensor and the irradiation point on the substrate; and a distance adjustor that adjusts the distance between the light receiving sensor and the irradiation point on the substrate.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A film thickness measuring apparatus comprising:
a stage configured to place a substrate having a film formed thereon and measure a thickness of the film in-situ in a film forming apparatus, the film forming apparatus including a processing module that forms the film on the substrate and a transfer module that transfers the substrate to the processing module;
a film thickness meter including a light emitter that emits light toward the substrate disposed on the stage and a light receiving sensor that receives the light reflected by the substrate for measuring the thickness of the film in-situ;
a moving mechanism including a multi-joint arm configured to move an irradiation point of the light on the substrate;
a distance meter configured to measure a distance between the light receiving sensor and the irradiation point on the substrate; and
a distance adjustor configured to adjust the distance between the light receiving sensor and the irradiation point on the substrate.

2. The film thickness measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a reference plate provided on the stage, made of a same material as a base of the substrate, and serving as a reference for a light source.

3. The film thickness measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the film thickness meter irradiates a broad light having a wavelength of 800 nm or less.

4. The film thickness measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the distance meter is a laser distance meter.

5. The film thickness measuring apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the laser distance meter includes a laser emitter that emits a laser light for measuring the distance toward the stage and a receiving sensor that receives the laser light reflected by the substrate, and
the film thickness meter and the laser distance meter are integrally provided to be adjacent to each other.

6. The film thickness measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the moving mechanism includes a first mover configured to move the film thickness meter in a radial direction of the substrate, and a second mover configured to rotate the stage.

7. The film thickness measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the moving mechanism includes a first mover configured to move the stage in a radial direction of the substrate, and a second mover configured to rotate the stage.

8. The film thickness measuring apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the first mover includes a first sub-mover configured to move a member that supports the stage along a rail provided horizontally.

9. The film thickness measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the moving mechanism includes a stage mover configured to arbitrarily move the stage in a horizontal plane.

10. The film thickness measuring apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the film thickness of the film formed on the substrate is 10 nm or less.

11. A film thickness measuring method comprising:
providing a film thickness measuring apparatus including:
a stage configured to place a substrate having a film formed thereon and measure a thickness of the film in-situ in a film forming apparatus, the film forming apparatus including a processing module that forms the film on the substrate and a transfer module that transfers the substrate to the processing module;
a film thickness meter including a light emitter that emits light toward the substrate disposed on the stage and a light receiving sensor that receives the light reflected by the substrate for measuring the thickness of the film in-situ;
a moving mechanism including a multi-joint arm configured to move an irradiation point of the light on the substrate;
a distance meter configured to measure a distance between the light receiving sensor and the irradiation point on the substrate; and
a distance adjustor configured to adjust the distance between the light receiving sensor and the irradiation point on the substrate,

measuring a distance between the light receiving sensor and a film thickness measurement position on the substrate where a film thickness is to be measured by irradiating light from the distance meter;
adjusting a distance between the light receiving sensor at the film thickness measurement position and the irradiation point on the substrate after moving the film thickness meter to the film thickness measurement position, based on a distance measured in the measuring the distance; and
measuring a film thickness by irradiating the film thickness measurement position with light from the light emitter and detecting a reflected light by the light receiving sensor.

12. The film thickness measuring method according to claim 11 , wherein the film thickness measuring apparatus further includes a reference plate provided on the stage, the reference plate being made of a same material as a base of the substrate and serving as a reference for a light source, and
the film thickness measuring method further comprises:
measuring a reference by irradiating the reference plate with light from the light emitter, before measuring the distance.

13. The film thickness measuring method according to claim 11 , wherein the measuring the film thickness is performed by irradiating a broad light having a wavelength of 800 nm or less from the film thickness meter.

14. The film thickness measuring method according to claim 11 , wherein the distance meter is a laser distance meter, and the measuring the distance is performed by irradiating the film thickness measurement position of the substrate with a laser light from the laser distance meter.

15. The film thickness measuring method according to claim 14 , wherein the laser distance meter includes a laser emitter that emits a laser light for measuring the distance toward the stage and a light receiving sensor that receives the laser light reflected from the substrate, and
the film thickness meter and the laser distance meter are integrally provided to be adjacent to each other.

16. The film thickness measuring method according to claim 11 , wherein the moving mechanism includes a first mover configured to move the film thickness meter in a radial direction of the substrate, and a second mover configured to rotate the stage.

17. The film thickness measuring method according to claim 11 , wherein the moving mechanism includes a first mover configured to move the stage in a radial direction of the substrate, and a second mover configured to rotate the stage.

18. The film thickness measuring method according to claim 17 , wherein the first mover includes a first sub-mover configured to move a member that supports the stage along a rail provided horizontally.

19. The film thickness measuring method according to claim 11 , wherein the moving mechanism includes a stage mover configured to arbitrarily move the stage in a horizontal plane.

20. The film thickness measuring method according to claim 11 , wherein the film thickness of the film formed on the substrate is 10 nm or less.

21. A film forming system comprising:
a processing module configured to form a film on a substrate;
a transfer module configured to transfer a substrate to the processing module; and
a film thickness measuring apparatus configured to measure a film thickness of the film formed by the processing module in-situ,
wherein the film thickness measuring apparatus includes:
a stage configured to place a substrate having a film formed thereon and measure a thickness of the film in-situ in a film forming a

Assignees

• Tokyo Electron Ltd
• Tokyo Electron Limted

Inventors

• Shinada Masato
• Takeyama Tamaki
• Ono Kazunaga
• Suzuki Naoyuki
• Chihaya Hiroaki
• Abarra Einstein Noel

Classifications

• H10P74/203

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

• H10P74/23

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

• H10P72/0604

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

• H10P72/0464

  characterised by the construction of the transfer chamber · CPC title

• H10P72/0462

  characterised by the construction of the processing chambers, e.g. modular processing chambers · CPC title