Pattern sensing device and semiconductor sensing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9846931-B2
Application number	US-201314379425-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 18, 2013
Priority date	Mar 19, 2012
Publication date	Dec 19, 2017
Grant date	Dec 19, 2017

Abstract

An object of the invention is to provide a pattern measuring device for generating appropriate reference pattern data while suppressing an increase in the manufacturing cost that would occur when manufacturing conditions are finely changed. A pattern measuring device has an arithmetic processing unit for measuring a pattern formed on a sample. The arithmetic processing unit, on the basis of signals obtained with a charged particle beam device, acquires or generates image data or contour line data on a plurality of circuit patterns created under different manufacturing conditions of a manufacturing apparatus, and generates reference data to be used for measurement of a circuit pattern from the image data or contour line data.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A pattern measuring device comprising:
an arithmetic processing unit including processing circuitry and a non-transitory memory storing at least one of image data and contour line data formed based on an output of a charged particle beam device, and a program that, when executed by the processing circuitry, causes the processing circuitry to:
acquire or generate the image data or the contour line data of a plurality of circuit patterns created under different manufacturing conditions of an exposure apparatus;
determine a plurality of measured values of the circuit patterns for each exposure condition, using the image data or contour line data of different exposure conditions;
calculate a function representing a relationship between the measured values and each exposure condition based on the measured values of each exposure condition; and
generate reference data to be used for measurement of a circuit pattern by setting a pattern edge based on an edge position determined for different positions of the pattern;
wherein the arithmetic processing unit, using the image data or the contour line data on a plurality of circuit patterns created under different combinations of a focus condition and a dose condition of the exposure apparatus, measures dimensions of the plurality of circuit patterns, determines a best focus condition and a best dose condition on the basis of measurement results of the dimensions of the plurality of circuit patterns, and changes an edge position of the contour line data in accordance with positions of the best focus condition and the best dose condition on a focus map and a dose map.

2. The pattern measuring device according to claim 1 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit, based on measurement results of dimensions of the image data or the contour line data on the plurality of circuit patterns, selects a plurality of manufacturing conditions that satisfy predetermined conditions, and generates the reference data from the image data or the contour line data on a plurality of patterns formed under the manufacturing conditions.

3. The pattern measuring device according to claim 2 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit, based on measurement results of the dimensions of the image data or the contour line data on the plurality of circuit patterns, selects one of the manufacturing conditions that satisfies one of the predetermined conditions, and generates the reference data from the image data or the contour line data on a predetermined number of patterns or on patterns in a predetermined range that have been created under conditions that are close to the selected one of the manufacturing conditions that satisfies the one of the predetermined conditions.

4. The pattern measuring device according to claim 1 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit, based on measurement results of dimensions of the image data or the contour line data on the plurality of circuit patterns, generates or selects contour line data on patterns formed under manufacturing conditions that are close to a selected manufacturing condition, determines corresponding points of two contour lines of the contour line data, and sets an edge point at a position, corresponding to the selected manufacturing condition, between the corresponding points.

5. The pattern measuring device according to claim 1 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit, based on a measurement result of a shape difference between the image data or the contour line data on each of the plurality of circuit patterns and figure data that is based on design data, selects a plurality of manufacturing conditions that satisfy a predetermined condition, and generates the reference data from the image data or the contour line data on a plurality of patterns formed under the plurality of manufacturing conditions.

6. The pattern measuring device according to claim 1 , wherein the arithmetic processing device, based on a measurement result of a shape difference between the image data or the contour line data on each of the plurality of circuit patterns and figure data that is based on design data, selects a manufacturing condition that satisfies a predetermined condition, and generates the reference data from the image data or the contour line data on a predetermined number of patterns or on patterns in a predetermined range, the predetermined number of patterns or the patterns in the predetermined range having been created under conditions that are close to the selected manufacturing condition that satisfies the predetermined condition.

7. The pattern measuring device according to claim 1 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit, using image data or contour line data on a plurality of circuit patterns created under different combinations of a focus condition and a dose condition of the exposure apparatus, measures a shape difference between the image data or the contour line data on each circuit pattern and design data, determines the best focus condition and the best dose condition on the basis of a measurement result of the shape difference of each of the plurality of circuit patterns, and changes an edge position of the contour line data in accordance with positions of the best focus condition and the best dose condition on a focus map and a dose map.

8. The pattern measuring device according to claim 1 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit, based on a measurement result of a shape difference between the image data or the contour line data on each of the plurality of circuit patterns and figure data that is based on design data, generates or selects contour line data on patterns formed under at least two manufacturing conditions that are close to a selected manufacturing condition, determines corresponding points of two contour lines of the contour line data, and sets an edge point at a position corresponding to the selected manufacturing condition, between the corresponding points.

9. The pattern measuring device according to claim 1 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit performs measurement of a shape difference between the image data or the contour line data on each of the plurality of circuit patterns and figure data that is based on design data at a portion other than a region including a corner portion of each circuit pattern, and generates the reference data based on the measurement of the shape difference.

10. The pattern measuring device according to claim 1 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit generates contour line data on a plurality of circuit patterns created under different manufacturing conditions of a manufacturing apparatus, and determines an edge point on the basis of a difference between a manufacturing condition of a pattern indicated by the contour line data and a manufacturing condition determined on the basis of the contour line data, at a position between corresponding points of contour lines of the contour line data.

11. The pattern measuring device according to claim 10 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit determines the edge point by performing an interpolation operation in accordance with the difference.

12. The pattern measuring device according to claim 1 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit measures a shape error amount by comparing the reference data with a shape of each of the circuit patterns created under the different manufacturing conditions.

13. The pattern measuring device according to claim 12 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit identifies if a pattern is non-defective based on comparison between the shape error amount and a predetermined tolerable error amount.

14. The pattern measuring device according to claim 1 ,

Assignees

• Hitachi High Tech Corp

Inventors

• Toyoda Yasutaka
• Shindo Hiroyuki
• Ota Yoshihiro

Classifications

• H10P74/203 Primary

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

• G06T7/001 Primary

  using an image reference approach · CPC title

• G06V10/772 Primary

  Determining representative reference patterns, e.g. averaging or distorting patterns; Generating dictionaries · CPC title

• G06F18/28

  Determining representative reference patterns, e.g. by averaging or distorting; Generating dictionaries · CPC title

• G06T7/0008

  checking presence/absence · CPC title