Hitachi, Ltd.

Renesas Technology Corp.

Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation

Hitachi High-tech Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd.

Trecenti Technologies, Inc.

Hitachi High-technologies Corporaation

Hirofumi Tsuchiyama

Minori Noguchi

Yoshikazu Tanabe

Kenji Watanabe

Yasuo Yatsugake

Yukio Kenbou

Ichiro Moriyama

Ichiro Ishimaru

Shinichi Nakabayashi

Toshiyuki Arai

Ryousei Kawai

Fumiyuki Kanai

Yukio Kenbo

Shunji Maeda

Takanori Ninomiya

Takenori Hirose

Hisahiko Abe

Yoshiteru Katsumura

Aki Nakajo

Masahiro Aoyagi

Shinobu Nakamura

Shinichi Nakabayshi

Masaki Hiyama

Takashi Nishiguchi

A defect inspection apparatus including: a first illumination optical system which is configured to illuminate the inspection area on a sample surface from a normal line direction or a direction near thereof with respect to said sample surface; a second illumination optical system which is configured to illuminate said inspection area from a slant direction with respect to said sample surface; a detection optical system having a plurality of first detectors which are located, in front of, on the sides of, and behind said inspection area, respectively, with respect to the illumination direction of said second illumination optical system, and where the regular reflected light component, from said sample surface, by illumination light of said second illumination optical system, is not converged; and a signal processing system which is configured to inspect a defect, upon basis of signals obtained from said plurality of first detectors.

Surface inspection apparatus and method thereof

A method of fabrication of a semiconductor integrated circuit device, including polishing the entire area of an edge of a wafer, for example, uses three polishing drums in which a polishing drum polishes the upper surface of the edge of the wafer, a polishing drum polishes the central portion of the edge of the wafer and a polishing drum polishes the lower surface of the edge of the wafer, thereby preventing occurrence of obstacles which cause defoliation of thin films on the edge of the wafer.

Fabrication method of semiconductor integrated circuit device

The invention provides a surface inspection apparatus and a method for inspecting the surface of a sample that are capable of inspecting discriminatingly between the scratch of various configuration and the adhered foreign object that occur on the surface of a work target when the work target (for example, an insulating film on a semiconductor substrate) is subjected to polishing process such as CMP or grinding process in semiconductor manufacturing process or magnetic head manufacturing process.

An apparatus for detecting defects, including: a first illumination optical unit which illuminates from a normal direction or in the vicinity of the normal direction; a second illumination optical unit which illuminates from a first elevation angle; a first detection optical unit which detects light reflected by the illumination of the first illumination optical unit or the second illumination optical unit with plural detectors; a second detection optical unit which detects light reflected by the illumination of the first illumination optical unit or the second illumination optical unit with plural detectors; wherein the plural detectors of the first detection optical unit and the plural detectors of the second detection optical unit are photomultipliers, and the signal processor processes the signals outputted from the photomultipliers and are adjusted to balance in sensitivities.

A surface inspection apparatus and a method for inspecting the surface of a sample are capable of inspecting discriminatingly between scratches of various configuration and adhered foreign objects that occur on the surface of a work target when the work target (for example, an insulating film on a semiconductor substrate) is subjected to a polishing process such as CMP or a grinding process, in semiconductor manufacturing process or magnetic head manufacturing process. In the invention, the scratch and foreign object that occur on the polished or ground surface of the sample is epi-illuminated and slant-illuminated by use of approximately same light flux, the difference between the scattered light intensity from the shallow scratch and from the foreign object is applied to thereby discriminate between the shallow scratch and the foreign object, and the directionality of the scattered light is detected to discriminate between the linear scratch and the foreign object.

Setting a polishing rate and a polishing time in chemical mechanical polishing can be performed with high accuracy by considering a product wafer of an object to be polished, and an instrumental error between apparatuses to be used, etc. By using, as a calculating formula, a formula well approximating a portion of a curve representing a state of chemical mechanical polishing on a side showing a target polishing amount, the polishing rate and the polishing time can be set with high accuracy according to a state of chemical mechanical polishing for actually polishing a product wafer. In the calculating formula, a parameter 'A' relating to a film property of a film of an object to be polished, a parameter 'B' relating to a roughness state of a film surface, and a parameter &#x201c;C&#x201d; relating to an instrumental error differential between apparatuses of a chemical mechanical polishing apparatus are joined by operators.

Chemical mechanical polishing method, chemical mechanical polishing system, and manufacturing method of semiconductor device

A method of fabrication of a semiconductor integrated circuit device, including polishing the entire area of an edge of a wafer, for example, uses three polishing drums in which a polishing drum polishes the upper surface of the edge of the water, a polishing drum polishes the central portion of the edge of the wafer and a polishing drum polishes the lower surface of the edges of the wafer, thereby preventing occurrence of obstacles which cause defoliation of thin films on the edge of the wafer.

In order to reduce micro scratches which tend to occur during chemical-mechanical polishing, a polishing slurry is diluted with deionized water immediately before it is supplied in a gap between a polishing pad and the surface of a wafer to be polished. By diluting the polishing slurry with deionized water to increase its volume, the concentration of coagulated particles contained in the polishing slurry can be lowered. For a mixture ratio of the polishing slurry and deionized water, about 1 (polishing slurry): 1&#x2013;1.2 (deionized water) is used, and the concentration of silica contained in the diluted polishing slurry is adjusted to about 3&#x2013;9 weight %, preferably about 4&#x2013;8 weight %, and more preferably about 8 weight %.

The invention provides a surface inspection apparatus and a method for inspecting the surface of a sample that are capable of inspecting discriminatingly between the scratch of various configuration and the adhered foreign object that occur on the surface of a work target when the work target (for example, an insulating film on a semiconductor substrate) is subjected to polishing process such as CMP or grinding process in semiconductor manufacturing process or magnetic head manufacturing process. In the invention, the scratch and foreign object that occur on the polished or ground surface of the sample is epi-illuminated and slant-illuminated by use of approximately same light flux, the difference between the scattered light intensity emitted from the shallow scratch and that from the foreign object when epi-illumination is applied and slant illumination is applied to thereby discriminate between the shallow scratch and the foreign object, and the directionality of the scattered light when the epi-illumination is applied and the slant illumination is applied is detected to thereby discriminate between the linear scratch and the foreign object.

This invention aims to measure film thickness and film thickness distribution to high precision in a wide range of transparent films. As one example, in a CMP process, the film thickness of an outermost surface layer formed on a step pattern of an actual product can be measured so that high precision film thickness control can be performed. To achieve an increase of processing throughput, the film thickness of an optically transparent film formed on an actual device pattern is controlled to high precision by incorporating a film thickness measuring unit, which performs frequency analysis of a spectral distribution, in a polishing apparatus. As a result, an increase of processing throughput is realized. To perform the high precision measurement, the frequency analysis is performed on the spectral distribution waveform of interference light from white light due to the film, and an absolute value of film thickness is computed from the relation of the phase of frequency components in the waveform and film thickness.

Thin film thickness measuring method and apparatus, and method and apparatus for manufacturing a thin film device using the same

In the manufacturing method, micro scratches are detected without performing a breakdown inspection on wafers flowing through a mass production process. The method comprises: forming an insulating film on main surfaces of a plurality of first wafers which flow through a mass-production process; preparing a dummy wafer for monitoring, on which a silicon-oxide-based insulating film is formed; performing chemical mechanical polishing on the insulating films respectively formed on main surfaces of the plurality of first wafers and the dummy wafer; performing etching on the insulating film of the dummy wafer with use of a solution containing hydrofluoric acid, after the step of performing the chemical mechanical polishing; and measuring a number of scratches on the insulating film of the dummy wafer subjected to the etching.

Semiconductor integrated circuit device manufacturing method including chemical mechanical polishing, and detection and evaluation of microscratches caused thereby

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Hitachinaka, Japan

Hirofumi Tsuchiyama