International Business Machines Corporation

Charles J Parrish

Charles Arthur Whiting

Matthew C Nicholls

Craig E Schneider

Keith J Machia

Steven M Shank

Edward W Conrad

Methods for the controlled manufacture of high aspect ratio features. The method may include forming a layer stack on a top surface of a substrate and forming features in the layers of the layer stack. The high aspect ratio features may be defined using a resist layer that is patterned with a photolithographic condition. After removing at least one of the layers removed from the top of the layer stack, a feature dimension may be measured for features at different locations on the substrate. The method may further include changing the photolithographic condition based on the measured dimension and processing another substrate using the changed photolithographic condition.

MEMS process method for high aspect ratio structures

A predictive method is used to compensate for intermediate batch sensitivities which inevitably occur during resist batch changeover. The compensation is applied to historical dose levels to arrive at a new dose level estimating an optimum dose. When the system discovers that a new batch of resist is loaded to a tool, historical data is used to calculate a reference dose for each tool. A batch factor is continuously calculated and using historical data along with the batch factor, a dose adjustment is made to maintain proper image size.

Method of photolithographic exposure dose control as a function of resist sensitivity

A method and system embodying the present invention for predicting systematic overlay affects in semiconductor lithography. This method is a feed-forward method, based on correlation of current and prior aligned levels, to predict optimum overlay offsets for a given lot. Instead of using population averaging, which ignores process variability, it acknowledges the variability and uses prior measurements to advantage. The principle, backed by production data, is that &ldquo;systematic&rdquo; overlay errors are just that: Image placement errors which persist through processing and will be predictable through time and processing.

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Milton, VT, United States of America

Charles J Parrish