Tokyo Electron Limited

Michio Tanaka

Hiroshi Tomita

Kunie Ogata

Ryouichi Uemura

Yoshio Kimura

Koki Nishimuko

Masahide Tadokoro

Ryoichi Uemura

Takashi Aiuchi

Makoto Kiyota

Masami Yamashita

Shinichi Shinozuka

A resist pattern forming method using a coating and developing apparatus and an aligner being connected thereto which are controlled to form a resist film on a surface of a substrate with a base film and a base pattern formed thereon, followed by inspecting at least one of a plurality of measurement items selected from: reflection ratio and film thickness of the base film and the resist film, line width after a development, an accuracy that the base pattern matches with a resist pattern, a defect on the surface after the development, etc. A parameter subject to amendment is selected based on corresponding data of each measurement item, such as the film thickness of the resist and the line width after the development, and amendment of the parameter is performed. This results in a reduced workload of an operator, and the appropriate amendment can be performed.

Substrate processing method and apparatus

A pattern forming systemincludes a checking apparatus, a storage device, and a control section. The checking apparatusis configured to measure and check a state of a resist pattern formed on a substrate W after a developing process and output a first check result thus obtained, and to measure and check a state of a pattern formed on the substrate after an etching process and output a second check result thus obtained. The storage devicestores a correlation formula obtained from the first check result and the second check result. The control sectionis configured to use the correlation formula to obtain a target value of the state of the pattern after the developing process from a target value of the state of the pattern after the etching process, and to use a difference between the target value of the state of the pattern after the developing process and the first check result to set a condition for the first heat process and/or the second heat process.

Substrate-processing apparatus, substrate-processing method, substrate-processing program, and computer-readable recording medium recorded with such program

A pattern forming systemincludes a checking apparatusand a control section. The checking apparatusis configured to measure and check a sidewall angle SWA of a resist pattern formed on a substrate W after a developing process. The control sectionis configured to use a difference between a target value of the sidewall angle SWA of the resist pattern after the developing process and a check result of the sidewall angle SWA obtained by the checking apparatus, to set a process condition for a first heat processtoor a second heat processtoso as to cause the sidewall angle SWA to approximate the target value thereof after the developing process.

A pattern forming systemis configured to execute a series of processes, which includes a first heat process for performing a heat process on a substrate W after a resist liquid coating process, a light exposure process for performing light exposure on a resist film in accordance with a predetermined pattern, a second heat process for promoting a chemical reaction in the resist film after the light exposure, a developing process for developing the resist film after the light exposure, and an etching process for etching an oxide film by use of a resist pattern formed by the developing process as a mask. The system includes a checking apparatusconfigured to measure and check a state of a pattern formed after the etching process, and a control sectionconfigured to use a check result to set a condition for the first heat process and/or the second heat process so as to cause the state of the pattern to be uniform on a surface of the substrate W after the etching process.

Resist pattern forming method

In the present invention, in the photolithography process in which a certain focus condition has been already set, a film on a substrate is exposed to only zero-order light of a light source transmitted, and then developed to reduce a first portion of the film on the substrate. Further, the film on the substrate is exposed to zero-order light and higher order light of the light source transmitted, and then developed to reduce a second portion of the film on the substrate. Thereafter, the film thicknesses of the first portion and the second portion are measured, and the measured film thicknesses of the first portion and the second portion are converted into line widths of a resist pattern by previously obtained correlations between the film thicknesses and the line widths. The converted line width of the second portion is then subtracted from the converted line width of the first portion, whereby the line width depending only on the focus component is calculated. Based on the line width, a new focus condition is set.

Method of setting focus condition at time of exposure, apparatus for setting focus condition at time of exposure, program, and computer readable recording medium

A resist pattern forming apparatus comprising a controller having a controlling portion that controls a processing of a coating and developing apparatus with a coating unit and a developing unit being provided therewith and an aligner being connected thereto, while an inspecting portion and the like measures at least one of a plurality of measurement items selected from, a reflection ratio and a film thickness of a base film and a resist film, a line width after the development, an accuracy that the base film matches with a resist pattern, a defect after the development, and so on. The measured data is transmitted to the controller. At the controller, a parameter subject to an amendment is selected based on the corresponding data of each of the measurement item such as the film thickness of the resist and the line width after the development, and the amendment of the parameters subject to the amendment is performed. As a result, the amending operation is facilitated by a reduced workload of an operator and in the same time, the appropriate amendment can be performed.

Resist pattern forming apparatus and method thereof

In the present invention, in the photolithography process in which a certain processing condition has been already set, a resist film on a substrate is exposed to light using a mask, which reduces only zero-order light of a light source at a predetermined light reduction rate and transmits the light, and then heated and developed so that the film on the substrate is reduced. Thereafter, the reduction in film thickness of the resist film is measured. The measured reduction in film thickness is then converted into a line width of a resist pattern on the already-set processing condition by a correlation function between the reduction in film thickness and the line width. Based on the converted line width, the temperature setting of the heating temperature at the time of heating after the exposure is performed. Consequently, the condition setting in the photolithography process is appropriately performed, resulting in improved uniformity of the line width of the resist pattern within the substrate.

Method of setting processing condition in photolithography process, apparatus for setting processing condition in photolithography process, program, and computer readable recording medium

In optical line width measurement performed using the scatterometry technique, the present invention measures the line width formed on a substrate more accurately than in the prior art. After a predetermined pattern is formed in a resist film on a substrate, the refractive index and the extinction coefficient of the resist film are measured. Based on the measured values, calculation is performed to obtain calculated light intensity distributions of reflected light reflected from a plurality of virtual patterns. The calculated light intensity distributions are stored, and their library is created. The substrate for which the refractive index and so on are measured is irradiated with light, and the light intensity distribution of its reflected light is measured. The light intensity distribution is collated with the calculated light intensity distributions in the library, so that the line width of the virtual pattern having a matching light intensity distribution is regarded as the line width of the real pattern. Since the library of the light intensity distributions of the virtual pattern is created based on the actually measured refractive index and so on after the formation of the pattern, an accurate line width matching the pattern state at the time of measuring the line width is measured.

Line width measuring method, substrate processing method, substrate processing apparatus and substrate cooling processing unit

A resist pattern forming method using a coating and developing apparatus and an aligner being connected thereto which are controlled to form a resist film on a surface of a substrate with a base film and a base pattern formed thereon, followed by inspecting at least one of a plurality of measurement items selected from: reflection ratio and film thickness of the base film and the resist film, line width after a development, an accuracy that the base pattern matches with a resist pattern, a defect on the surface after the development, etc. A parameter subject to amendment is selected based on corresponding data of each measurement item, such as the film thickness of the resist and the line width after the development, and amendment of the parameter is performed. This results in a reduced workload of an operator, and an appropriate amendment can be performed.

When a base film of a substrate is formed, for instance, on a scribe line of a wafer, a quadrangular first inspection pattern is formed in advance, and when a resist pattern is formed, a second inspection pattern are formed so as to be on a straight line to the first inspection pattern in a top plan view. When light is irradiated to a region including the first inspection pattern and the second inspection pattern and a spectrum is formed based on the reflected diffracted light, information of a line width of the second inspection pattern and a pitch of both inspection patterns is contained therein. In this connection, by preparing in advance a group of spectra based on various kinds of inspection patterns according to simulation and by comparing with an actual spectrum, the most approximate spectrum is selected, and thereby the line width and the pitch are estimated to evaluate the resist pattern.

Substrate inspecting device, coating/developing device and substrate inspecting method

The present invention is a managing system for managing a processing system of a substrate and it has an information accumulation section for accumulating information on the processing system, an information collecting unit for collecting the information from the information accumulation section, and a managing unit for obtaining the information in the information collecting unit via the Internet or an intranet to manage the processing system based on this information.

Growing community of inventors

Kikuchi-gun, Japan

Michio Tanaka