Using high resolution full die image data for inspection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9401016-B2
Application number	US-201514707592-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 8, 2015
Priority date	May 12, 2014
Publication date	Jul 26, 2016
Grant date	Jul 26, 2016

Abstract

Methods and systems for determining a position of inspection data with respect to a stored high resolution die image are provided. One method includes aligning data acquired by an inspection system for alignment sites on a wafer with data for predetermined alignment sites. The predetermined alignment sites have a predetermined position in die image space of a stored high resolution die image for the wafer. The method also includes determining positions of the alignment sites in the die image space based on the predetermined positions of the predetermined alignment sites in the die image space. In addition, the method includes determining a position of inspection data acquired for the wafer by the inspection system in the die image space based on the positions of the alignment sites in the die image space.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for determining a position of inspection data with respect to a stored high resolution die image, comprising:
aligning data acquired by an inspection system for alignment sites on a wafer with data for predetermined alignment sites, wherein the predetermined alignment sites have predetermined positions in die image space of a stored high resolution die image for the wafer;
determining positions of the alignment sites in the die image space based on the predetermined positions of the predetermined alignment sites in the die image space; and
determining a position of inspection data acquired for the wafer by the inspection system in the die image space based on the positions of the alignment sites in the die image space, wherein aligning the data, determining the positions of the alignment sites, and determining the position of the inspection data are performed by a computer system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stored high resolution die image is a stored high resolution image of an entirety of the die.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising acquiring the high resolution die image for the wafer by scanning a die on the wafer or another wafer with an electron beam-based imaging system and storing the acquired high resolution die image in a storage medium.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein design data for the wafer is not available for use in the method.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising detecting defects on the wafer based on the inspection data, wherein locations of the defects are not known prior to said detecting.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the position of the inspection data is determined with sub-pixel accuracy.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying one or more care areas to be used for inspection of the wafer based on the stored high resolution die image.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying the inspection data that corresponds to a care area on the wafer based on the position of the inspection data in the die image space.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining an offset between the data for the alignment sites on the wafer and the data for the predetermined alignment sites based on said aligning, wherein determining the position of the inspection data is performed using the offset and the positions of the alignment sites in the die image space.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a context map from the stored high resolution die image, wherein the context map comprises values for one or more attributes of the stored high resolution die image across the die image space.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising acquiring information for a hot spot at one location on the wafer, identifying other locations of the hot spot on the wafer based on the information for the hot spot, and generating care areas for the wafer based on the hot spots at the one location and the other locations.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising detecting defects on the wafer based on the inspection data and classifying at least one of the defects based on the position of the inspection data corresponding to the at least one defect in the die image space and a context map, wherein the context map comprises values for one or more attributes of the stored high resolution die image across the die image space.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a context map from the stored high resolution die image, wherein the context map comprises values for one or more attributes of the stored high resolution die image across the die image space and context codes for the values, detecting defects on the wafer based on the inspection data, and assigning one of the context codes to at least one of the defects based on the position of the inspection data corresponding to the least one defect in the die image space and the context map.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting the predetermined alignment sites based on information about one or more optical modes and pixel size to be used by the inspection system for inspection of the wafer.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data acquired for the alignment sites on the wafer and the inspection data are acquired with two or more optical modes on the inspection system.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the alignment sites used for a first of the two or more optical modes are different from the alignment sites used for a second of the two or more optical modes.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the data for the predetermined alignment sites used for a first of the two or more optical modes is different than the data for the predetermined alignment sites used for a second of the two or more optical modes.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is performed during inspection of the wafer.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data for the alignment sites on the wafer comprises scanned images, and wherein the data for the predetermined alignment sites comprises high resolution image data from the stored high resolution die image.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data for the alignment sites on the wafer comprises scanned images, and wherein the data for the predetermined alignment sites comprises image clips.

21. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting the predetermined alignment sites from the stored high resolution die image for the wafer such that there is at least one predetermined alignment site in each of multiple swaths of the inspection data.

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein said aligning is performed before defect detection for the wafer.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein setup of the method is performed off-tool.

24. The method of claim 1 , wherein setup of the method is performed on-tool.

25. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting the predetermined alignment sites by dividing the stored high resolution die image into portions that correspond to each of multiple swaths of the inspection data and searching the stored high resolution die image to identify and select at least one of the predetermined alignment sites in each of the multiple swaths.

26. The method of claim 1 , further comprising extracting high resolution die image clips for the predetermined alignment sites from the stored high resolution die image and storing the extracted image clips in a file that is used by the inspection system for inspection of the wafer.

27. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting the predetermined alignment sites by pre-processing the stored high resolution die image to select predetermined alignment sites that are compatible with the inspection system and an inspection process to be used by the inspection system for the wafer.

28. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting the predetermined alignment sites by scanning a die row on a wafer using the inspection system and processing each frame of a die to identify unique alignment sites.

29. The method of claim 1 , further comprising scanning the wafer using the best imaging mode of the inspection system for inspection to select suitable predetermined alignment sites and determining positions of the selected predetermined alignment sites based on images produced by said scanning and the stored high resol

Assignees

• Kla Tencor Corp
• Kla Tencor Corp

Inventors

• Kulkarni Ashok V

Classifications

• H10P74/203 Primary

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

• H10P72/0616

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

• G06T7/74

  involving reference images or patches · CPC title

• G01N2201/10

  Scanning · CPC title

• G01N2021/8825

  Separate detection of dark field and bright field · CPC title