Tokyo Electron Limited

Toyohisa Tsuruda

Masato Hosaka

Masashi Enomoto

Masahide Tadokoro

Hiroshi Nakamura

Michael Carcasi

Yoshitaka Konishi

Hiroshi Tomita

Hidetami Yaegashi

Tomohiro Iseki

Masato Hayashi

Atsushi Ookouchi

Kenichi Oyama

Hidefumi Matsui

Yasuaki Noda

Shinji Okada

Yuichiro Kunugimoto

Yoshihiro Kondo

Hiroyuki Iwaki

Yusuke Yoda

Takafumi Hayama

Masashi Imanaka

Satoshi Itoh

Masayuki Kajiwara

Hiroyuki Kudoh

Toshiyuki Fukumoto

Madoka Fujimoto

Keishi Hamada

Masahiro Yamamoto

Masatoshi Yamato

Masahiro Yanagisawa

Kazuhiro Shiba

Hideto Mori

Hirokazu Kyokane

A film thickness analysis method includes: acquiring film thickness values at a plurality of measurement points different from each other along a radial direction for a target film formed on an analysis target substrate by supplying a processing liquid while rotating the target substrate based on predetermined liquid processing conditions; and creating an approximate expression related to a film thickness distribution of the target film by approximating the film thickness values at the plurality of measurement points with respect to one Zernike polynomial. The approximate expression is created by specifying a coefficient related to the film thickness of the entire target substrate and one or more coefficients related to concentric curvature components, among a plurality of coefficients included in the Zernike polynomial.

Film thickness analysis method, film thickness analysis device and storage medium

A substrate processing apparatus includes: an imaging portion configured to acquire a surface image of a film formed on a surface of a substrate; an optical property estimation portion configured to estimate an optical property of the film based on process information acquired during formation of the film; and a film thickness estimation portion configured to estimate a film thickness of the film based on the surface image and an estimation result of the optical property.

Substrate processing apparatus, substrate processing method, and storage medium

A device for creating a shape characteristic value estimation model for estimating a shape characteristic value includes: a post-processing-image acquisition part for acquiring a post-processing image of a surface of a substrate subjected to film processing; a pre-processing-image acquisition part for acquiring a pre-processing image of the surface not subjected to the film processing; a color-change estimation model creation part for creating a color-change estimation model for estimating first color-related information of the surface of the substrate included in the post-processing image from second color-related information of the surface of the substrate included in the pre-processing image; and a correlation estimation model creation part for creating a correlation estimation model by obtaining a difference between the first information and a result estimated by the color-change estimation model, the correlation estimation model being used for estimating correlation between the difference and the shape characteristic value.

Estimation model creation device, estimation model creation method, and storage medium

A substrate processing control method in a substrate processing apparatus, includes: acquiring a data set for each substrate sequentially subjected to first and second processes at first and second levels, the data set including information specifying the first level at which the first process has been performed, information specifying the second level at which the second process has been performed and information about a characteristic amount relating to characteristics of the substrate; calculating information including an expected value of the characteristic amount, and level deviations of the first and second levels to the expected value based on the data set, and correcting the first parameter at the first level or the second parameter at the second level based on the calculated information.

Substrate processing control method, substrate processing apparatus and storage medium

An information processing apparatus includes a prediction unit configured to calculate, based on a film thickness model representing a relationship between a state of a substrate processing apparatus and a film thickness of a coating film formed on a front surface of a substrate by the substrate processing apparatus and pre-data representing the state of the substrate processing apparatus before the substrate is processed by the substrate processing apparatus, a predicted film thickness when the substrate is processed by the substrate processing apparatus; and an output unit configured to output, based on the predicted film thickness, instruction information on a processing of the substrate before the substrate is processed by the substrate processing apparatus.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method and computer-readable recording medium

Various embodiments of systems and methods for monitoring thermal characteristics of substrates, substrate processes and/or substrate processing module components are disclosed herein. More specifically, the present disclosure provides various embodiments of a thermal imaging sensor within various substrate processing modules (e.g., a liquid dispense module, a baking module or combined bake module, an interface block, a wafer inspection system (WIS) module, a plating dispense module or another processing module) of a substrate processing system. By positioning the thermal imaging sensor at various locations within the substrate processing system, the present disclosure enables thermal data to be remotely collected from the substrate surface, a liquid dispensed onto the substrate surface, a processing space surrounding the substrate, or a component included within a substrate processing module (e.g., a liquid dispense nozzle, a spin chuck, a spin coat cup, a cooling arm, a WIS component, a heating component, etc.).

Thermal imaging sensor for integration into track system

A substrate treatment method includes: generating, for each of layers constituting a stacked film on a substrate, a captured image of the substrate after a treatment regarding a relevant layer; and acquiring information indicating a feature amount estimated based on the captured image for each of a plurality of layers including an outermost layer of the stacked film on the substrate.

Substrate treatment method and substrate treatment system

A substrate processing control method in a substrate processing apparatus, includes: acquiring a data set for each substrate sequentially subjected to first and second processes at first and second levels, the data set including information specifying the first level at which the first process has been performed, information specifying the second level at which the second process has been performed and information about a characteristic amount relating to characteristics of the substrate; calculating information including an expected value of the characteristic amount, and level deviations of the first and second levels to the expected value based on the data set; and correcting the first parameter at the first level or the second parameter at the second level based on the calculated information.

Various embodiments of systems and methods for calibrating wafer inspection system modules are disclosed herein. More specifically, the present disclosure provides various embodiments of systems and methods to calibrate the multiple spectral band values obtained from a substrate by a camera system included within a WIS module. In one embodiment, multiple spectral band values are red, green, and blue (RGB) values. As described in more detail below, the calibration methods disclosed herein may use a test wafer having a predetermined pattern of thickness changes or color changes to generate multiple spectral band offset values. The multiple spectral band offset values can be applied to the multiple spectral band values obtained from the substrate to generate calibrated RGB values, which compensate for spectral responsivity differences between camera systems included within a plurality of WIS modules.

System and method to calibrate a plurality of wafer inspection system (WIS) modules

An information processing method includes obtaining information on a deformation factor of a surface of a target substrate; obtaining a surface image of the target substrate; calculating a correction coefficient for correcting an image change due to deformation of the surface, based on the information on the deformation factor of the surface; and generating a corrected image of the target substrate by correcting the surface image of the target substrate using the correction coefficient.

Information processing method, information processing apparatus and computer-readable recording medium

A substrate inspection system includes an imaging unit provided in a substrate processing apparatus and configured to acquire image data by imaging a surface of a substrate for color information on which a film is formed; a film thickness measurement unit provided in the substrate processing apparatus and configured to measure a film thickness of a substrate for film thickness measurement on which a film is formed under same conditions as on the substrate for color information; and a model creation unit configured to create a film thickness model corresponding to a correlation between information about color change on the surface of the substrate for color information caused by forming the film, which is acquired based on the image data, and the film thickness of the substrate for film thickness measurement, which is measured by the film thickness measurement unit.

Substrate inspection system, substrate inspection method and recording medium

An apparatus includes: a processed-image acquisition part for acquiring a processed image including image information of a surface of a substrate having a target film formed thereon; an estimation part for estimating a shape characteristic value of the target film, by applying an estimation model for estimating the shape characteristic value of the target film to the processed image; an underlying influence model creation part for creating an underlying influence model associated with a correlation between a difference between an estimation result of the shape characteristic value of the target film and a shape characteristic value of the target film acquired without using the estimation model, and information related to a color of a surface of an underlying substrate before the target film is formed, and an estimated-result correction part for correcting the estimation result of the shape characteristic value of the target film based on the underlying influence model.

Shape characteristic value estimation apparatus, shape characteristic value estimation method, and storage medium

A method of inspecting a substrate, includes: creating a model indicating a relation between a pixel value in a captured image of the substrate and a feature amount of a film on the substrate, based on a measured feature amount of a film on a creating substrate and a captured image generated by imaging the creating substrate by an apparatus in a first system; imaging an object substrate by an apparatus in a second system to generate a captured image, and calculating an estimated feature amount of a film on the object substrate, based on the captured image and the model; calculating a statistical value of the estimated feature amounts of the object substrates; and calculating an offset amount for the estimated feature amount from a measured feature amount of a film formed by performing a same treatment on an offset substrate in the second system and the statistical value.

Substrate inspection method, substrate inspection system, and control apparatus

A period from a time point when a wafer W is carried into a housingto a time point when the wafer W after being exposed is completely ready to be carried out is set as a single cycle. A time period before a next cycle is begun and after the single cycle is completed is referred to as a standby time period. When an illuminance in dummy light emission is set to be Id; an illuminance in exposure, Is; a time length of the dummy light emission, Td; and a time length of the exposure, Ts, by setting the Id to satisfy an expression of Id=(Tp/Td)&#xb7;Iw&#x2212;(Ts/Td)&#xb7;Is, an average illuminance within the single cycle is maintained constant between substrates.

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Koshi, Japan

Toyohisa Tsuruda