System for deriving electrical characteristics and non-transitory computer-readable medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12394041-B2
Application number	US-202318315046-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 10, 2023
Priority date	Aug 7, 2019
Publication date	Aug 19, 2025
Grant date	Aug 19, 2025

Abstract

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a system for deriving a type of defect of a semiconductor element and a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The system receives, from the image acquisition tool, image data obtained by sequentially irradiating a plurality of patterns provided on the semiconductor wafer with a beam and extracts characteristics of the plurality of patterns sequentially irradiated with a beam from the received image data, the characteristics being included in the image data, or receives characteristics of the plurality of patterns sequentially irradiated with a beam from the image acquisition tool, the characteristics being extracted from the image data (Step 603 ), and derives (Step 605 ) a type of a defect by referring to (Step 604 ) related information for the characteristics of the plurality of patterns, the related information storing the characteristics of the plurality of patterns and types of defects in association with each other.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An inspection system for a semiconductor wafer that is configured to be communicable with an image acquisition tool and inspects an electric circuit formed on a semiconductor wafer from image data acquired from the image acquisition tool or characteristics extracted from the image data, the system comprising:
a computer system; and
an arithmetic module that is executed by the computer system;
wherein the computer system
receives, from the image acquisition tool, image data obtained by sequentially irradiating a plurality of contacts included in a transistor provided on the semiconductor wafer with a beam moving irradiation points at respectively different timings, and extracts characteristics of the plurality of contacts sequentially irradiated with the beam from the image data, the characteristics being included in the image data, or receives characteristics of the plurality of contacts sequentially irradiated with the beam, the characteristics being extracted from the image data; and
outputs reliability information by referring to related information with the characteristics of the plurality of contacts,

wherein the related information stores, mutually associated with each other,
the characteristics of the plurality of contacts extracted from image data that is acquired by sequentially irradiating the plurality of contacts with the beam moving the irradiation points at the respectively different timings, and
reliability information of the transistor;

wherein the reliability information includes any of information related to a guaranteed operating time of the transistor, information related to a number of times of guaranteed operation of the transistor, information related to characteristics deterioration of the transistor, information related to whether the transistor is normal, or information related to whether the transistor is defective; and
wherein the information related to the characteristics deterioration of the transistor is characteristic deterioration information with respect to stress caused by irradiating the beam onto the plurality of contacts.

2. The inspection system for the semiconductor wafer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the characteristics of the plurality of contacts are obtained when a beam irradiation point of the image acquisition tool is moved in a plurality of directions relative to the plurality of contacts.

3. The inspection system for the semiconductor wafer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the related information is a database storing a plurality of characteristics and the reliability information of the transistor in association with each other, the plurality of characteristics being obtained by sequentially irradiating the plurality of contacts included in the semiconductor device with the beam.

4. The inspection system for the semiconductor wafer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the plurality of contacts includes two or more from a source contact, a gate contact, and a drain contact.

5. The inspection system for the semiconductor wafer according to claim 4 ,
wherein, by charge being accumulated in the gate contact, the gate of the transistor is opened or the source and the drain of the transistor are electrically connected.

6. The inspection system for the semiconductor wafer according to claim 1 ,
Wherein the image data is data obtained by beam scanning of the image acquisition tool such that the plurality of contacts are included in a field of view.

7. The inspection system for the semiconductor wafer according to claim 6 ,
wherein the image data is data obtained by beam scanning of the image acquisition tool in an arrangement direction of the plurality of contacts according to an arrangement order.

8. The inspection system for the semiconductor wafer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the image data is a voltage contrast image data.

9. The inspection system for the semiconductor wafer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the plurality of contacts includes a word line contact and a storage node contact connected to the transistor.

10. The inspection system for the semiconductor wafer according to claim 9 ,
wherein the computer system extracts characteristics of a plurality of storage node contacts from a plurality of image data related to the storage node contacts obtained upon repeatedly sequentially irradiating the word line contact and the storage node contact with the beam, and outputs the reliability information based on extracted characteristics of the plurality of storage node contacts.

11. An inspection system for a semiconductor wafer that is configured to be communicable with an image acquisition tool and inspects a transistor formed on a semiconductor wafer from image data acquired from the image acquisition tool or characteristics extracted from the image data, the system comprising:
a computer system; and
an arithmetic module that is executed by the computer system;
wherein the computer system
receives, from the image acquisition tool, the image data obtained by irradiating, with a beam moving irradiation points at respectively different timings, a storage node contact connected to the transistor as a number of times of irradiating, with the beam for applying stress, a word line contact connected to the transistor increases and extracts characteristics of a plurality of storage node contacts from the received image data, the characteristics being included in the image data, or receives characteristics of the plurality of storage node contacts, the characteristics being extracted from the image data; and
outputs reliability information of the transistor by referring to related information with the characteristics of the plurality of storage node contacts, wherein the related information stores, mutually associated with each other,
the characteristics of the plurality of storage node contacts extracted from image data that is acquired by sequentially irradiating the plurality of storage node contacts with the beam moving the irradiation points at the respectively different timings, and
reliability information of the transistor;

wherein the reliability information includes any of information related to a guaranteed operating time of the transistor, information related to a number of times of guaranteed operation of the transistor, information related to characteristics deterioration of the transistor, information related to whether the transistor is normal, or information related to whether the transistor is defective; and
wherein the information related to the characteristics deterioration of the transistor is characteristic deterioration information with respect to stress caused by irradiating the beam onto the plurality of storage node contacts.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program that is configured to instruct a processor to:
receive, from an image acquisition tool, image data obtained by sequentially irradiating a plurality of contacts included in a transistor provided on a semiconductor wafer with a beam moving irradiation points at respectively different timings and further to extract characteristics of the plurality of contacts sequentially irradiated with a beam from the image data, the characteristics being included in the image data, or to receive the characteristics of the plurality of contacts sequentially irradiated with the beam, the characteristics being extracted from the image data; and
output reliability information by referring to related information with the characteristics of the plurality of contacts, wherein the related information stores, mutually associated with each other,
the characteristics of the plurality of contacts ex

Assignees

• Hitachi High Tech Corp

Inventors

• KIMIZUKA Heita
• Nakamura Yohei
• Tsuno Natsuki
• Fukuda Muneyuki

Classifications

• G06T2207/10152

  Varying illumination · CPC title

• G06T2207/30148

  Semiconductor; IC; Wafer · CPC title

• G01N2021/8835

  Adjustable illumination, e.g. software adjustable screen · CPC title

• G01N2021/8854

  Grading and classifying of flaws · CPC title

• G01N2021/8887

  based on image processing techniques · CPC title