Detecting defects on wafers based on 2D scatter plots of values determined for output generated using different optics modes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9619876-B2
Application number	US-201313796955-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 12, 2013
Priority date	Mar 12, 2013
Publication date	Apr 11, 2017
Grant date	Apr 11, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems for detecting defects on a wafer are provided. One method includes determining difference values for pixels in first output for a wafer generated using a first optics mode of an inspection system and determining other values for pixels in second output for the wafer generated using a second optics mode of the inspection system. The first and second optics modes are different from each other. The method also includes generating a two-dimensional scatter plot of the difference values and the other values for the pixels in the first and second output corresponding to substantially the same locations on the wafer. The method further includes detecting defects on the wafer based on the two-dimensional scatter plot.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for detecting defects on a wafer, comprising:
determining difference values for pixels in first output for a wafer generated using a first optics mode of an inspection system, wherein said determining comprises subtracting a characteristic of each of the pixels in the first output for a reference die on the wafer from the characteristic of its corresponding pixel in the first output for a test die on the wafer,
determining other values for pixels in second output for the wafer generated using a second optics mode of the inspection system, wherein determining the other values comprises determining a value of another characteristic of each of the pixels in the second output for the reference die and the other characteristic of its corresponding pixel in the second output for the test die, and wherein the first and second optics modes are different from each other;
generating a two-dimensional scatter plot of the difference values and the other values for the pixels in the first and second output corresponding to substantially the same locations in the test die, wherein said generating is performed prior to outlier detection and defect detection for the wafer,
generating an additional two-dimensional scatter plot for the first output, the second output, or the first and second output, wherein at least one value used to generate the additional two-dimensional scatter plot is different from the difference values and the other values used to generate the two-dimensional scatter plot;
detecting defects in the test die on the wafer based on the two-dimensional scatter plot and the additional two-dimensional scatter plot; and
binning the defects based on which of the two-dimensional scatter plot and the additional two-dimensional scatter plot in which the defects were detected, wherein said detecting comprises identifying outliers in the two-dimensional scatter plot and determining if the outliers correspond to defects, wherein generating the two-dimensional scatter plot is further performed prior to identifying the outliers in the two-dimensional scatter plot and determining if the outliers correspond to the defects, and wherein determining the difference values, determining the other values, generating the two-dimensional scatter plot, generating the additional two-dimensional scatter plot, detecting the defects, and binning the defects are performed by a computer system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic and the other characteristic are intensity of the pixels in the first output and the second output, respectively.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the difference values are values for a linearly filtered difference, a match filtered difference, a non-linear filtered difference, a normalized difference, or a square root of a product of two differences.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the other values are values for a median, a dilated median, or a range of median values.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said detecting further comprises separating the two-dimensional scatter plot into two or more segments and separately performing defect detection in each of the two or more segments.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein one or more first defect detection parameters used for the defect detection in a first of the two or more segments are different than one or more second defect detection parameters used for the defect detection in a second of the two or more segments.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the one or more first and second defect detection parameters comprise different thresholds that are applied to the difference values for the pixels in the first output for the test die.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the additional two-dimensional scatter plot comprises determining other values for the pixels in the first output and generating the additional two-dimensional scatter plot of the difference values and the other values for the pixels in the first output.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising displaying to a user the two-dimensional scatter plot and the additional two-dimensional scatter plot.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying to a user the two-dimensional scatter plot and allowing the user to change the difference values and the other values in the two-dimensional scatter plot by selecting the first and second optics modes from multiple optics modes of the inspection system used to generate output for the wafer, selecting the difference values from among different types of difference values that can be determined by the method, and selecting the other values from among different types of other values that can be determined by the method.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second output are generated in the same pass of an inspection process performed on the wafer by the inspection system.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second output are generated in different passes of a single inspection process performed on the wafer by the inspection system.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second output are generated in different passes of different inspection processes performed on the wafer by the inspection system.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, storing program instructions executable on a computer system for performing a method for detecting defects on a wafer, wherein the method comprises:
determining difference values for pixels in first output for a wafer generated using a first optics mode of an inspection system, wherein said determining comprises subtracting a characteristic of each of the pixels in the first output for a reference die on the wafer from the characteristic of its corresponding pixel in the first output for a test die on the wafer;
determining other values for pixels in second output for the wafer generated using a second optics mode of the inspection system, wherein determining the other values comprises determining a value of another characteristic of each of the pixels in the second output for the reference die and the other characteristic of its corresponding pixel in the second output for the test die, and wherein the first and second optics modes are different from each other;
generating a two-dimensional scatter plot of the difference values and the other values for the pixels in the first and second output corresponding to substantially the same locations in the test die, wherein said generating is performed prior to outlier detection and defect detection for the wafer;
generating an additional two-dimensional scatter plot for the first output, the second output, or the first and second output, wherein at least one value used to generate the additional two-dimensional scatter plot is different from the difference values and the other values used to generate the two-dimensional scatter plot;
detecting defects in the test die on the wafer based on the two-dimensional scatter plot and the additional two-dimensional scatter plot; and
binning the defects based on which of the two-dimensional scatter plot and the additional two-dimensional scatter plot in which the defects were detected, wherein said detecting comprises identifying outliers in the two-dimensional scatter plot and determining if the outliers correspond to defects, and wherein generating the two-dimensional scatter plot is further performed prior to identifying the outliers in the two-dimensional scatter plot and determining if the outliers correspond to the defects.

15. A system configured to detect defects on a wafer, comprising:
an inspection subsyst

Assignees

• Kla Tencor Corp
• Kla Tencor Corp

Inventors

• Huang Junqing
• Gao Lisheng

Classifications

• G01N21/88

  Investigating the presence of flaws or contamination · CPC title

• G06T2207/30148

  Semiconductor; IC; Wafer · CPC title

• G01N21/95607

  using a comparative method · CPC title

• G06T7/0002

  Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection · CPC title

• G06T2207/20076

  Probabilistic image processing · CPC title