Ebara Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Other

Nikon Corporation

Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Toshifumi Kimba

Tohru Satake

Mamoru Nakasuji

Nobuharu Noji

Shoji Yoshikawa

Tsutomu Karimata

Hirosi Sobukawa

Shin Oowada

Mutsumi Saito

Masahiro Hatakeyama

Takeshi Murakami

Kenji Watanabe

Muneki Hamashima

Masaki Kinoshita

Yuichiro Yamazaki

Ichirota Nagahama

Kenichi Suematsu

Toru Takagi

Takao Kato

Takamitsu Nagai

Ryo Tajima

Keiichi Tohyama

Yutaka Tabe

Shunsuke Nakai

Yoichi Kobayashi

Itsuki Kobata

Katsutoshi Ono

Hiroshi Nishimura

Naoto Kihara

Keisuke Mizuuchi

Nobuyuki Takahashi

Hiroshi Sobukawa

Yoichi Shiokawa

Yukiharu Okubo

Yoshiaki Kohama

Hiroaki Kusa

Satoshi Mori

Matsutaro Miyamoto

Yu Ishii

Yoshikazu Kato

Shinrou Ohta

Tamihiro Miyoshi

Masaki Fujii

Tsutomi Karimata

Nabuharu Noji

Mitsumi Saito

Hirotaka Satori

Hisaji Miyoshi

An optical film-thickness measuring apparatus capable of eliminating an influence of a fluid flow on optical fiber cables when the fluid, such as pure water, is flowing through a through-hole of a polishing pad, and capable of achieving highly accurate measuring of a film thickness is disclosed. The optical film-thickness measuring apparatus includes: a light-emitting optical fiber cable coupled to a light source; a light-receiving optical fiber cable arranged to receive light reflected from the workpiece; a cable housing surrounding the light-emitting optical fiber cable and the light-receiving optical fiber cable; and a flow-passage structure defining a fluid passage adjacent to the light-emitting optical fiber cable and the light-receiving optical fiber cable. The light-emitting optical fiber cable and the light-receiving optical fiber cable are supported by at least one of the cable housing and the flow-passage structure.

Optical film-thickness measuring apparatus and polishing apparatus

A polishing apparatus which can measure a film thickness with high accuracy without affecting a polishing rate of a wafer is disclosed. The polishing apparatus includes: a polishing head configured to press a wafer against a polishing pad; an illuminating fiber having a distal end disposed in a flow passage formed in the polishing table; a spectrometer configured to resolve reflected light from the wafer in accordance with wavelength and measure an intensity of the reflected light at each of the wavelengths; a light-receiving fiber having a distal end disposed in the flow passage; a liquid supply line communicating with the flow passage; a gas supply line communicating with the flow passage; a liquid supply valve attached to the liquid supply line; a gas supply valve attached to the gas supply line; and an operation controller configured to control operations of the liquid supply valve and the gas supply valve.

Polishing apparatus and polishing method

A polishing method capable of accurately measuring a film thickness of a substrate, such as a wafer, by enhancing light intensity of a flash-light source, such as a xenon flash lamp is disclosed. The polishing method includes: while an optical sensor head is moving across a substrate, causing a flash-light source to emit light plural times in a first exposure time of a light detector to direct the light to the substrate via the optical sensor head, capturing reflected light from the substrate by the light detector via the optical sensor head, further causing the flash-light source to emit light plural times in a second exposure time of the light detector to direct the light to the substrate via the optical sensor head, and capturing reflected light from the substrate by the light detector via the optical sensor head; generating a spectrum of the reflected light; and detecting a surface state of the substrate from the spectrum.

Polishing method and polishing apparatus

There is disclosed a polishing apparatus which allows for easy replacement of a light source with another type of light source. The light-source assembly includes: a base fixed to a polishing table and coupled to a light-emitting transmission line; and a light-source module having a lamp for emitting light. The light-source module is removably attached to the base. The base is a common base which is adapted to any of a plurality of light-source modules of different types including the light-source module. The base includes a positioning structure which achieves positioning of the light-source module relative to the base.

Polishing apparatus

A polishing apparatus capable of accurately determining a service life of a light source, and further capable of accurately measuring a film thickness of a substrate, such as a wafer, without calibrating an optical film-thickness measuring device, is disclosed. The polishing apparatus includes a spectrometer configured to decompose reflected light from a substrate in accordance with wavelength and measure an intensity of the reflected light at each of wavelengths a film thickness of the substrate is determined based on a spectral waveform indicating a relationship between the intensity of the reflected light and wavelength. An optical-path selecting mechanism is configured to selectively couple either a light-receiving fiber or an internal optical fiber to the spectrometer.

A film-thickness measuring apparatus includes: a light source; an illuminating fiber coupled to the light source and having a distal end disposed at a predetermined position in a wafer supporting structure; a spectrometer configured to decompose reflected light from a wafer in accordance with wavelength and measure an intensity of the reflected light at each of wavelengths; a first light-receiving fiber having a distal end disposed at the predetermined position; a second light-receiving fiber having a distal end which is disposed at the predetermined position and is adjacent to the distal end of the first light-receiving fiber; a processor configured to determine a film thickness of the wafer based on a spectral waveform indicating a relationship between the intensity of the reflected light and the wavelength; and an optical-path selecting mechanism configured to optically connect and disconnect the second light-receiving fiber and the spectrometer.

Film-thickness measuring apparatus, polishing apparatus, and polishing method

A polishing apparatus capable of accurately measuring a film thickness by regulating a quantity of light illuminating a wafer is disclosed. The polishing apparatus includes: a light source; an illuminating fiber having distal ends arranged at different locations in the polishing table; and a light-receiving fiber having distal ends arranged at the different locations in the polishing table. The illuminating fiber includes a first illuminating fiber and a second illuminating fiber. A first dimmer is attached to the first illuminating fiber and the second illuminating fiber, and a second dimmer is attached to at least one of the first illuminating fiber and the second illuminating fiber.

A polishing apparatus for polishing a substrate is provided. The polishing apparatus includes: a polishing table holding a polishing pad; a top ring configured to press the substrate against the polishing pad; first and second optical heads each configured to apply the light to the substrate and to receive reflected light from the substrate; spectroscopes each configured to measure at each wavelength an intensity of the reflected light received; and a processor configured to produce a spectrum indicating a relationship between intensity and wavelength of the reflected light. The first optical head is arranged so as to face a center of the substrate, and the second optical head is arranged so as to face a peripheral portion of the substrate.

The present invention relates to a film-thickness measuring method for detecting a film thickness by analyzing optical information contained in a reflected light from a substrate. The film-thickness measuring method includes producing a spectral waveform indicating a relationship between intensity and wavelength of reflected light from a substrate; performing Fourier transform processing on the spectral waveform to determine strengths of frequency components and corresponding film thicknesses; determining local maximum values (M, M) of the strengths of the frequency components; and selecting, according to a preset selection rule, one film thickness from film thicknesses (t, t) corresponding respectively to the local maximum values (M, M). The selection rule is either to select an N-th largest film thickness or to select an N-th smallest film thickness, and N is a predetermined natural number.

Film thickness measuring method, film thickness measuring apparatus, polishing method, and polishing apparatus

A polishing apparatus capable of measuring a film thickness of a wafer using a plurality of optical sensors, without using an optical-path switching device for optical fibers, is disclosed. The polishing apparatus includes: an illuminating fiber having a plurality of distal ends arranged at different locations in a polishing table; a spectrometer configured to break up reflected light from a wafer in accordance with wavelength and measure an intensity of the reflected light at each of wavelengths; a light-receiving fiber having a plurality of distal ends arranged at the different locations in the polishing table; and a processor configured to generate a spectral waveform indicating a relationship between the intensity and wavelength of the reflected light and determine a film thickness based on the spectral waveform.

A polishing method capable of obtaining an accurate thickness of a silicon layer during polishing of a substrate and determining an accurate polishing end point of the substrate based on the thickness of the silicon layer obtained. The method includes: calculating relative reflectance by dividing the measured intensity of the infrared ray by predetermined reference intensity; producing spectral waveform representing relationship between the relative reflectance and wavelength of the infrared ray; performing a Fourier transform process on the spectral waveform to determine a thickness of the silicon layer and a corresponding strength of frequency component; and determining a polishing end point of the substrate based on a point of time when the determined thickness of the silicon layer has reached a predetermined target value.

A method of polishing a substrate is disclosed. The method includes irradiating the substrate with light; measuring intensity of the reflected light; producing spectral waveform representing relationship between relative reflectance and wavelength of the light; performing a Fourier transform process on the spectral waveform to determine a thickness of the film and a corresponding strength of frequency component; determining whether the determined thickness of the film is reliable or not by comparing the strength of frequency component with a threshold value; calculating a defective data rate representing a proportion of the number of unreliable measured values to the total number of measured values; and changing the threshold value based on the defective data rate.

Polishing method

A substrate is irradiated by primary electrons and secondary electrons generated from the substrate are detected by a detector. A reference die is placed on the stage to obtain a pattern matching template image including feature coordinates of the reference die. A pattern matching is performed with an arbitrary die in a row or column including the reference die using the template image to obtain feature coordinates of the arbitrary die. An angle of misalignment is calculated between the direction of the row or column including the reference die and one of the directions of movement of the substrate on the basis of the feature coordinates of the arbitrary die and those of the reference die. The stage is rotated to correct the angle of misalignment to conform the direction of the row or column including the reference die with the one of the directions of movement of the substrate.

Testing apparatus using charged particles and device manufacturing method using the testing apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Toshifumi Kimba