Automated inline inspection of wafer edge strain profiles using rapid photoreflectance spectroscopy

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9640449-B2
Application number	US-201514688739-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 16, 2015
Priority date	Apr 21, 2014
Publication date	May 2, 2017
Grant date	May 2, 2017

Abstract

Photoreflectance spectroscopy is used to measure strain at or near the edge of a wafer in a production process. The strain measurement is used to anticipate defects and make prospective corrections in later stages of the production process. Strain measurements are used to associate various production steps with defects to enhance later production processes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for measuring edge strain in a wafer production process comprising:
a processor;
a wafer illuminating device comprising:
an incident probe light source configured to illuminate a portion of a wafer; and
a pump light source configured to modulate a portion of light from the incident light source reflected off the portion of the wafer;

a spectrograph configured to receive a reflected beam from the wafer illumination device via the wafer; and
a light detector connected to the processor and configured for receiving light from the spectrograph,
wherein:
the wafer illumination device is configured to illuminate an edge of a wafer; and
the processor is configured to:
determine a strain value based on data received from the light detector; and
identify one or more slip dislocations based on the strain value at the edge of the wafer.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the wafer illumination device is configured to traverse a path such that an axis defined by the wafer illumination device and the portion of the wafer being illuminated is orthogonal to a tangent of the edge of the wafer over the entire path; and
the processor is configured to control a position and orientation of the wafer illumination device along the path.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to correlate the strain value to one or more wafer production parameters.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the processor is configured to:
identify a wafer defect; and
correlate the strain value to the identified wafer defect and the one or more wafer production parameters.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to correlate the strain value to an anticipated wafer defect.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to compare the strain value to a threshold wafer strain value.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:
identify a wafer defect; and
correlate the strain value to the identified wafer defect.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the incident light source or the pump light source is a laser.

9. A computer apparatus comprising:
a processor;
a wafer illuminating device connected to the processor, comprising:
an incident probe light source configured to illuminate a portion of a wafer; and
a pump light source configured to modulate a portion of light from the incident light source reflected off the portion of the wafer;

a spectrograph configured to receive a reflected beam from the wafer illumination device via the wafer; and
a light detector connected to the processor configured for detecting spectrographic data from the spectrograph; and
memory connected to the processor for storing computer executable code,
wherein the computer executable code is configured to instruct the processor to:
receive spectrographic data corresponding to a portion of a wafer edge;
determine a strain value based on the spectrographic data; and
identify one or more slip dislocations based on the strain value at the edge of the wafer.

10. The computer apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the computer executable code is configured to instruct the processor to orient the wafer illumination device to illuminate the portion of the wafer edge.

11. The computer apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the computer executable code is configured to instruct the processor to correlate the strain value to one or more wafer production parameters.

12. The computer apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the computer executable code is configured to instruct the processor to:
identify a wafer defect; and
correlate the strain value to the identified wafer defect and the one or more wafer production parameters.

13. The computer apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the computer executable code is configured to instruct the processor to correlate the strain value to an anticipated wafer defect.

14. The computer apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the computer executable code is configured to instruct the processor to compare the strain value to a threshold wafer strain value.

15. The computer apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the computer executable code is configured to instruct the processor to:
identify a wafer defect; and
correlate the strain value to the identified wafer defect.

16. A method for measuring strain at a wafer edge in a wafer production process comprising:
producing, with a wafer inspection apparatus, an edge profile of a wafer in a wafer production process;
illuminating, with a wafer illumination device, an edge of the wafer;
receiving, with a processor, spectrographic data corresponding to the edge of the wafer;
determining, with the processor, a strain value based on the spectrographic data;
identifying one or more slip dislocations based on the strain value at the edge of the wafer; and
modifying a feature of the wafer production process based on the strain value.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising correlating the strain value to one or more wafer production parameters.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising
identifying a wafer defect; and
correlating the strain value to the identified wafer defect and the one or more wafer production parameters.

19. The method of claim 16 , further comprising correlating the strain value to an anticipated wafer defect.

20. The method of claim 16 , further comprising comparing the strain value to a threshold wafer strain value.

21. The method of claim 16 , further comprising identifying a portion of the edge profile to be excluded from illumination.

Assignees

• Kla Tencor Corp

Inventors

• Goodwin Timothy
• Nicolaides Lena
• Mahadevan Mohan
• Horn Paul
• Li Shifang

Classifications

• H10P74/203

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

• H10P74/235 Primary

  comprising optical enhancement of defects or not-directly-visible states · CPC title

• G01N21/95

  characterised by the material or shape of the object to be examined (G01N21/89 - G01N21/91, G01N21/94 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01N21/8806

  Specially adapted optical and illumination features · CPC title

• H01L22/12

  Electricity · mapped topic