Control device, system and control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12165892-B2
Application number	US-202117369122-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2021
Priority date	Jul 14, 2020
Publication date	Dec 10, 2024
Grant date	Dec 10, 2024

Abstract

A control device includes a reception unit configured to receive a film characteristic at a plurality of positions of a film formed on a substrate by a film forming processing based on a processing recipe, an optimization processing unit configured to execute an optimization calculation of the processing recipe based on the film characteristic, a diagnosis unit configured to diagnose a validity of an in-plane shape of the film characteristic based on the film characteristic, and a determination unit configured to determine whether or not to notify a user of an encouraging action based on a diagnosis result by the diagnosis unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A control device comprising:
a measuring device for obtaining a plurality of measurements of a film characteristic of a film formed on a substrate based on a processing recipe, the plurality of measurements including measurements of the film characteristic at a plurality of positions along a plane of the substrate extending between edges of the substrate through a center of the substrate, the plurality of positions along the plane of the substrate;
diagnosis circuitry in communication with the measuring device, and configured to: I) map the plurality of measurements of the film characteristic received from the measuring device into an in-plane shape on a substrate map, the in-plane shape extending between the edges of the substrate through the center of the substrate; 2 ) diagnose a validity of the in-plane shape on the substrate map by analyzing a magnitude relation between at least two measurements of the film characteristic at the plurality of positions along the plane of the substrate; and 3 ) determine whether the in-plane shape belongs to one of a plurality of predetermined shapes or not;
optimization processing circuitry for: 1 ) receiving the diagnosed validity of the in-plane shape from the substrate map, from the diagnosis circuitry, and 2 ) in response to the in-plane shape belonging to one of the plurality of predetermined shapes, providing an optimization calculation for film forming processing on the substrate including a subsequent processing recipe; and
operation control circuitry for controlling the film forming processing based on the optimization calculation.

2. The control device according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of positions include the center or proximate to the center of the substrate, the edges of the substrate, and positions intermediate to the center and one of the respective edges, along the plane of the substrate.

3. The control device according to claim 1 , wherein the diagnosis circuitry diagnoses the validity of the in-plane shape based on an in-plane uniformity of the film characteristic, the in-plane uniformity of the film characteristic predicted when the film is formed by the processing recipe for which the optimization calculation has been executed, and a target in plane uniformity of the film characteristic.

4. The control device according to claim 1 , wherein the optimization processing circuitry executes the optimization calculation of the processing recipe based on the plurality of measurements of the film characteristic and a model indicating an influence of a temperature of the substrate on the film characteristic.

5. The control device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
determination circuitry configured to determine whether or not to notify a user of an encouraging action based on a diagnosis result by the diagnosis circuitry.

6. The control device according to claim 5 , further comprising:
display control circuitry configured to notify the user of the encouraging action.

7. The control device according to claim 6 , further comprising:
execution circuitry configured to execute the encouraging action notified by the display control circuitry.

8. The control device according to claim 1 , wherein the film characteristic is a film thickness.

9. A system comprising:
a film forming apparatus including a processing chamber configured to execute a film forming processing on a substrate based on a processing recipe;
a measuring meter configured to measure and provide a plurality of measurements of a film characteristic of a film formed on the substrate, along a plane of the substrate, on which the film forming processing has been executed; and
a controller in communication with the film forming apparatus, and the measuring meter, the controller comprising:
diagnosis circuitry configured to: I) receive the plurality of measurements from the measuring meter and map the plurality of measurements into an in-plane shape on a substrate map from a plurality of positions along the plane of the substrate extending between edges of the substrate through the center of the substrate, 2 ) diagnose a validity of an in-plane shape of the film characteristic from the substrate map by analyzing a magnitude relation between at least two of the plurality of measurements at the plurality of positions along the plane of the substrate; and 3 ) determine whether the in-plane shape belongs to one of a plurality of predetermined shapes or not;
optimization processing circuitry for: I) receiving the diagnosed validity of the in plane shape from the substrate map, from the diagnosis circuitry, and 2 ) in response to the in-plane shape belonging to one of the plurality of predetermined shapes, providing an optimization calculation including a subsequent processing recipe for film forming processing on the substrate; and
operation control circuitry for controlling the film forming processing by the film forming apparatus, based on the optimization calculation.

10. A control method comprising:
receiving a measurement of a film characteristic at a plurality of positions, to obtain a plurality of measurements, taken along a plane of a substrate between edges of the substrate and extending through a center of the substrate, of a film formed on the substrate by a film forming processing based on a processing recipe;
mapping the plurality of measurements of the film characteristic at the plurality of positions into an in-plane shape on a substrate map;
diagnosing a validity of the in-plane shape of the film characteristic from the substrate map by analyzing a magnitude relation between at least two of the plurality of measurements at the plurality of positions along the plane of the substrate;
receiving the diagnosed validity of the in-plane shape of the film characteristic from the substrate map;
determining whether the in-plane shape belongs to one of a plurality of predetermined shapes or not;
in response to the in-plane shape belonging to one of the predetermined shapes, executing an optimization calculation including a subsequent processing recipe for film forming processing on the substrate; and
controlling the film forming processing based on the optimization calculation.

11. The control device according to claim 1 , wherein the processing recipe and the subsequent processing recipe are either: 1) a same processing recipe, or 2) different processing recipes.

12. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the processing recipe and the subsequent processing recipe are either: 1) a same processing recipe, or 2) different processing recipes.

13. The control method according to claim 10 , wherein the processing recipe and the subsequent processing recipe are either: 1) a same processing recipe, or 2) different processing recipes.

14. The control device according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of positions, for analyzing the magnitude relation between at least two measurements, include predetermined positions along the plane of the substrate.

Assignees

• Tokyo Electron Ltd

Inventors

• Takenaga Yuichi
• Kasai Takahito
• Kang Youngtai

Classifications

• H10P72/0616

  Monitoring of warpages, curvatures, damages, defects or the like · CPC title

• H10P72/0606

  Position monitoring, e.g. misposition detection or presence detection · CPC title

• H10P72/0602

  Temperature monitoring · CPC title

• H10P72/0604 Primary

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

• Y02P90/02

  Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] · CPC title