Kla Tencor Corporation

Jeremy Nabeth

William Pierson

Onur Demirer

Mark Davis Smith

Hoyoung Heo

Miguel Garcia-Medina

Fatima Anis

Ramkumar Karur-Shanmugam

Christian Sparka

Stuart Sherwin

Lipkong Yap

Sanghuck Jeon

Choon (George) Hoong Hoo

Soujanya Vuppala

Methods and systems for providing overlay corrections are provided. A method may include: selecting an overlay model configured to perform overlay modeling for a wafer; obtaining a first set of modeled results from the overlay model, the first set of modeled results indicating adjustments applicable to a plurality of term coefficients of the overlay model; calculating a significance matrix indicating the significance of the plurality of term coefficients; identifying at least one less significant term coefficient among the plurality of term coefficients based on the calculated significance matrix; obtaining a second set of modeled results from the overlay model, the second set of modeled results indicating adjustments applicable to the plurality of term coefficients except for the identified at least one less significant term coefficient; and providing the second set of modeled results to facilitate overlay correction.

Overlay variance stabilization methods and systems

A process control system includes a controller configured to generate a reference overlay signature based on one or more overlay reference layers of a sample, extrapolate the reference overlay signature to a set of correctable fields for the exposure of a current layer of the sample to generate a full-field reference overlay signature, identify one or more alignment fields of the set of correctable fields, generate an alignment-correctable signature by modeling alignment corrections for the set of correctable fields, subtract the alignment-correctable signature from the full-field reference overlay signature to generate feedforward overlay corrections for the current layer when the one or more overlay reference layers are the same as the one or more alignment reference layers, generate lithography tool corrections based on the feedforward overlay corrections, and provide the lithography tool corrections for the current layer to the lithography tool.

Layer-to-layer feedforward overlay control with alignment corrections

A semiconductor tool includes an illumination source to generate an illumination beam, one or more illumination optical elements to direct a portion of the illumination beam to a sample, a detector, one or more collection optical elements to direct radiation emanating from the sample to the detector, and a controller communicatively coupled to the detector. The controller is configured to measure alignment at a plurality of locations across the sample to generate alignment data, select an analysis area for alignment zone determination, divide the analysis area into two or more alignment zones having different alignment signatures; model the alignment data of at least a first alignment zone of the two or more alignment zones using a first alignment model, and model the alignment data of at least a second alignment zone of the two or more alignment zones using a second alignment model different than the first alignment model.

Systems and methods for automated multi-zone detection and modeling

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Jeremy Nabeth