Method and apparatus for reducing radiation induced change in semiconductor structures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016276227-A1
Application number	US-201615075094-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 18, 2016
Priority date	Mar 19, 2015
Publication date	Sep 22, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to an apparatus and a method for reducing the adverse effects of exposing portions of an integrated circuit (IC) device to various forms of radiation during one or more operations found within the IC formation processing sequence by controlling the environment surrounding and temperature of an IC device during one or more parts of the IC formation processing sequence. The provided energy may include the delivery of radiation to a surface of a formed or a partially formed IC device during a deposition, etching, inspection or post-processing process operation. In some embodiments of the disclosure, the temperature of the substrate on which the IC device is formed is controlled to a temperature that is below room temperature (e.g., <20° C.) during the one or more parts of the IC formation processing sequence.

First claim

1 . A method of inspecting a surface of a substrate, comprising:
positioning a substrate on a substrate support assembly, wherein positioning the substrate comprises:
chucking the substrate to a substrate supporting surface of a substrate support assembly, wherein the substrate supporting surface is maintained at a temperature less than 20° C., and
exposing a region of a surface of the chucked substrate to radiation, wherein the exposed region achieves a first peak temperature due to the exposure to the radiation, and the first peak temperature is less than a threshold temperature for materials in the exposed region.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein exposing the region of the surface to radiation comprises delivering electromagnetic radiation or an electron beam to the region of the substrate.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the radiation is provided at a wavelength of between about 193 nm and 355 nm.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
heating the substrate to a temperature greater than the temperature at which the substrate supporting surface is maintained, the heating performed after exposing the region of the surface of the chucked substrate to the radiation.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate support assembly is disposed within a processing region of a process chamber, and the method further comprises:
delivering a dry gas to the processing region, wherein the dry gas comprises nitrogen (N 2 ), argon (Ar), helium (He), neon (Ne), krypton (Kr), or xenon (Xe).

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the materials in the exposed region comprise a patterned photoresist material.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold temperature is a temperature at which one or more of the materials in the exposed region can be changed in a way that impacts functional properties of the materials.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the exposed region comprises a patterned photoresist material exposed to a photoresist hard bake temperature, and the first peak temperature is less than the hard bake temperature.

9 . A substrate inspection apparatus, comprising:
a process chamber defining a processing region; a substrate support disposed in the processing region comprising a substrate chuck that has a substrate supporting surface; a radiation source that is configured to deliver radiation into the processing region; a support assembly that comprises one or more actuators that are configured to translate the substrate support relative to the radiation source; a temperature control assembly that is in thermal communication with the substrate supporting surface, wherein the temperature control assembly is configured to cool the substrate supporting surface to a first temperature that is less than 20° C., and a radiation detector configured to detect radiation reflected or scattered from a surface of a substrate that is disposed on the substrate supporting surface.

10 . The substrate inspection apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the radiation source is configured to generate electromagnetic radiation or an electron beam.

11 . The substrate inspection apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the radiation source is configured to generate electromagnetic radiation at a wavelength of between about 193 nm and 355 nm.

12 . The substrate inspection apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising:
a thermal control device that has a substrate supporting surface that is disposed in the processing region, and is configured to maintain the substrate supporting surface of the thermal control device at a temperature greater than the first temperature.

13 . The substrate inspection apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising:
a thermal control device that has a substrate supporting surface that is disposed in the processing region, and is configured to maintain the substrate supporting surface of the thermal control device at a temperature greater than a dew point of an atmospheric environment positioned in a region external to the processing region.

14 . The substrate inspection apparatus of claim 13 , further comprising a gas source that is configured to deliver a dry gas to the processing region, wherein the dry gas comprises nitrogen (N 2 ), argon (Ar), helium (He), neon (Ne), krypton (Kr) or xenon (Xe).

15 . The substrate inspection apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the substrate chuck further comprises an electrostatic chuck that comprises a bias electrode and a chucking power source.

16 . The substrate inspection apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the substrate chuck further comprises one or more grooves that are formed in the substrate supporting surface and are configured to receive a gas from a gas source.

17 . The substrate inspection apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising:
an objective lens that is disposed between the radiation source and the substrate support.

18 . The substrate inspection apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the objective lens is disposed between the radiation detector and the substrate support.

19 . A method of inspecting a surface of a substrate, comprising:
positioning a substrate on a substrate support assembly in a process chamber, the process chamber located in a first environment, wherein positioning the substrate comprises:
chucking the substrate to a substrate supporting surface of a substrate support assembly, wherein the substrate supporting surface is cooled to a temperature less than 0° C.;
exposing a region of a surface of the chucked substrate to radiation, wherein the exposed region achieves a first peak temperature due to the exposure to the radiation, wherein the first peak temperature is less than 150° C., and maintaining the temperature of the substrate supporting surface at less than 0° C. during the exposure of the surface of the chucked substrate to the radiation.

20 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising:
heating the substrate to a temperature greater than the dew point of the first environment, the heating performed after exposing the region of the surface of the chucked substrate to the radiation.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Dickerson Gary E
• LIM Seng (victor) Keong
• Banna Samer
• Kirk Gregory
• Vaez-Iravani Mehdi

Classifications

• H10P72/0432

  mainly by conduction · CPC title

• H10P95/90

  Thermal treatments, e.g. annealing or sintering · CPC title

• H10P76/204

  of organic photoresist masks · CPC title

• H10P74/203

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

• H10P72/0604

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