Kla Tencor Corporation

Kla Corporation

Kla-tencor Technologies Corporation

Kla Corporation Ca

Vladimir Levinski

Amnon Manassen

Daniel Kandel

Yoel Feler

Yuri Paskover

Mark Ghinovker

Andrew V Hill

Daria Negri

Michael E Adel

Joel L Seligson

Alexander Svizher

Noam Sapiens

Nadav Gutman

Ohad Bachar

Nuriel Amir

Yuval Lubashevsky

Eran Amit

Barak Bringoltz

Guy Cohen

Anna Golotsvan

Yoram Uziel

Roie Volkovich

Ilan Sela

Efraim Rotem

Yung-Ho Alex Chuang

Meir Aloni

Avi Abramov

Roel Gronheid

Eitan Hajaj

Itay Gdor

Mark Davis Smith

Liran Yerushalmi

Xuefeng Liu

John Charles Robinson

Pavel Izikson

Barry Loevsky

Dana Klein

Gilad Laredo

John Fielden

Stilian Pandev

Noah Bareket

Zeev Bomzon

Chris Mack

David Y Wang

Lawrence D Rotter

Boris Golovanevsky

Raviv Yohanan

Johannes D De Veer

Tal Marciano

Tzahi Grunzweig

Dzmitry Sanko

Evgeni Gurevich

Nireekshan K Reddy

Sharon Aharon

Yonatan Vaknin

Yossi Simon

Guy Ben Dov

Moshe Markowitz

Diana Shaphirov

Hadar Shalmoni

Nachshon Rothman

Yoni Shalibo

Inna Tarshish-Shapir

Amit Shaked

Nir BenDavid

Aviv Frommer

Boris Simkin

David Tulipman

Paykin Irina

Yung-Ho (Alex) Chuang

Dror Yaacov

Alexander Volfman

Tal Itzkovich

Myungjun Lee

Andy Hill

David Gready

Boris Efraty

Anat Marchelli

Yaron Zimmerman

Nimrod Shuall

Ido Adam

Sigalit Robinzon

Moshe Baruch

Elyakim Kassel

Jeffrey Byers

Ariel Hildesheim

Etay Lavert

Ofer Zaharan

Claire Staniunas

Alon Alexander Volfman

Shlomo Eisenbach

Irina Vakshtein

Yevgeniy Men

Oded Kaminsky

Alex Shulman

Eliav Benisty

Berta Dinu

A method for overlay metrology may include generating broadband illumination beams and directing the broadband illumination beams to an overlay target on a sample, where the overlay target may include cells having periodic features formed as overlapping grating structures. The method may include generating diffracted light using the periodic features of the overlay target, where the periodic features may act as a diffraction grating to generate diffracted light by separating the broadband illumination beam into a plurality of wavelengths. The method may include generating pupil images of cells of the overlay target, where a distribution of light in the pupil plane may include first-order diffraction lobes, where spectra of the first-order diffraction lobes may be spatially dispersed in the pupil plane. The method may include generating an overlay measurement based on portions of the pupil images corresponding to selected wavelengths of the spectra of the first-order diffraction lobes.

Single grab pupil landscape via broadband illumination

A metrology system may include a controller to receive two or more images of the overlay target from one or more detectors of an optical sub-system, the overlay target including first and second periodic features generated with different measurement conditions, each measurement condition associated with at least one of a sample focal distance or a configuration of diffraction orders of the illumination by the overlay target that contributes to the associated image. The controller may further calculate an amplitude asymmetry associated of opposing diffraction orders of the illumination by the overlay target based on the two or more images and one or more quality metrics associated with the overlay target based on the amplitude asymmetry.

Amplitude asymmetry measurements in overlay metrology

A system includes an illumination source configured to generate an illumination beam, and a collection sub-system that includes an objective lens, one or more detectors located at a collection pupil plane, a light modulator, and a controller. The light modulator is configured to direct one or more selected portions of measurement light to the one or more detectors. The controller includes one or more processors configured to execute program instructions causing the one or more processors to execute a metrology recipe by: receiving detection signals from the one or more detectors, wherein the detection signals are associated with the one or more selected portions of the measurement light directed to the one or more detectors; and generating an overlay measurement associated with at least two layers of a sample based on the detection signals.

System and method for isolation of specific fourier pupil frequency in overlay metrology

An overlay metrology system may generate overlay measurements based on isolated images of features on different layers of an overlay target. For example, a target may include a first-layer structure including periodic features with a fine pitch selected to be unresolved by the overlay metrology system, where the gratings structures are oriented to rotate a polarization of rotated diffraction orders relative to a polarization of incident illumination, where the rotated diffraction orders include at least first-order diffraction. In this way, first images generated with a collection polarizer oriented to capture the rotated diffraction orders may include only the first-layer structure, whereas second images generated with a collection polarizer oriented to be aligned with a polarization of incident illumination may include only the second-layer features.

Small in-die target design for overlay measurement

An overlay metrology target may include grating-over-grating structures formed from a lower grating structure with a first coarse pitch in a first sample layer and an upper grating structure with a second coarse pitch in a second sample layer, where the upper and lower grating structures overlap on the sample. At least one of the upper grating structure or the lower grating structure may include features with a fine pitch smaller than a wavelength of an illumination beam and arranged to rotate first-order diffraction of the illumination beam associated with at least one of the first or second coarse pitches with respect to at least one of specular reflection from a top surface of the sample or zero-order diffraction from the one or more grating structures. Overlay between the first and second layers of the sample is determinable from an image of the grating structures based on the first-order diffraction.

Scatterometry overlay metrology with orthogonal fine-pitch segmentation

An overlay metrology system may include illumination optics to split illumination from an illumination source into primary and secondary illumination and direct the primary illumination to a sample including an overlay target with gratings in two or more layers and an objective lens to collect positive and negative diffraction from the constituent gratings. The system may further include collection optics to overlap the auxiliary illumination with at least some of the collected diffraction lobes to generate time-varying interference signals. The system may further include a controller to generate overlay measurements based on the time-varying interference signals.

Scanning overlay metrology with high signal to noise ratio

A system for use with a misregistration metrology tool (MMT), the system including a database including a plurality of process variation (PV) categories and a corresponding plurality of parameter sets and a process variation accommodation engine (PVAE) including a measurement site process variation category associator (MSPVCA) operative to associate a measurement site being measured by the MMT, at least partially based on an MMT output relating to the measurement site, with a measurement site process variation category (MSPVC), the MSPVC being one of the plurality of PV categories, a measurement site parameter set retriever (MSPSR) operative to retrieve a measurement site parameter set (MSPS) corresponding to the MSPVC and a measurement site parameter set communicator (MSPSC) operative to communicate the MSPS to the MMT.

Systems and methods for measurement of misregistration and amelioration thereof

A method for correcting misregistration measurements of a semiconductor wafer for errors therein arising from tilt of the wafer including measuring, for at least one location on a wafer, a difference between a Tool Induced Shift (TIS) of a metrology device in a first illumination arrangement with respect to the wafer wherein a surface of the wafer is generally orthogonally illuminated by an illumination source of the metrology device and a TIS of the metrology device in a second illumination arrangement with respect to the wafer, wherein the surface is obliquely illuminated by the illumination source, and correcting a misregistration measurement measured by the metrology device at the at least one location for errors therein arising from tilt of the wafer at the location by subtracting from the misregistration measurement a weighted value of the difference between the TIS in the first and second illumination arrangements.

Systems and methods for correction of impact of wafer tilt on misregistration measurements

An adaptive modeling method for generating misregistration data for a semiconductor device wafer (SDW) including calculating a fitting function for a group of SDWs (GSDW) having units, including measuring an SDW in said GSDW, thereby generating test data sets corresponding to the units, removing non-unit-specific values (NUSVs) from the test data sets, thereby generating cleaned test data sets, and analyzing the cleaned test data sets, thereby generating the fitting function, and generating misregistration data for at least one additional SDW (ASDW) in the GSDW, including measuring the ASDW, thereby generating run data sets, removing NUSVs from the run data sets, thereby generating cleaned run data sets, fitting each of the cleaned run data sets to the fitting function, thereby generating coefficient sets, and calculating misregistration data for the ASDW, at least partially based on the fitting function and the coefficient sets.

Adaptive modeling misregistration measurement system and method

A method for semiconductor metrology includes depositing a first film layer on a semiconductor substrate and a second film layer overlying the first film layer. The first and second film layers are patterned to create an overlay target having a specified geometrical form by using a projection system having a predefined resolution limit to project optical radiation onto the semiconductor substrate through at least one mask. The mask contains target features having target feature dimensions no less than the predefined resolution limit in an arrangement corresponding to the specified geometrical form of the overlay target and assist features interleaved with the target features and having at least one assist feature dimension that is less than the predefined resolution limit.

Overlay target design for improved target placement accuracy

An optical metrology tool may include one or more illumination sources to generate illumination having wavelengths both within a short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectral range and outside the SWIR spectral range, illumination optics configured to direct the illumination to a sample, a first imaging channel including a first detector configured to image the sample based on a first wavelength range including at least some wavelengths in the SWIR spectral range, a second imaging channel including a second detector configured to image the sample based on a second wavelength range including at least some wavelengths outside the SWIR spectral range, and a controller. The controller may receive first images of the sample from the first detector, receive second images of the sample from the second detector, and generate an optical metrology measurement of the sample based on the first and second images.

Optical metrology utilizing short-wave infrared wavelengths

A metrology target may include a first rotationally symmetric working zone with one or more instances of a first pattern and a second rotationally-symmetric working zone with one or more instances of a second pattern, where at least one of the first pattern or the second pattern is a Moiré pattern formed from a first grating structure with a first pitch along a measurement direction on a first sample layer and a second grating structure with a second pitch different than the first pitch along the measurement direction on a second sample layer. Centers of rotational symmetry of the first and second working zones may overlap by design when an overlay error between the first sample layer and the second layer is zero. A difference between the centers of rotational symmetry of the first and second working zones may indicate an overlay error between the first and second sample layers.

Imaging overlay targets using moiré elements and rotational symmetry arrangements

A method for semiconductor metrology includes depositing first and second overlying film layers on a semiconductor substrate and patterning the layers to define an overlay target. The target includes a first grating pattern in the first layer, including at least a first linear grating oriented in a first direction and at least a second linear grating oriented in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and a second grating pattern in the second layer, including at least a third linear grating identical to the first linear grating and a fourth linear grating identical to the second linear grating. The second grating pattern has a nominal offset relative to the first grating pattern by first and second displacements in the first and second directions, respectively. A scatterometric image of the substrate is captured and processed to estimate an overlay error between the patterning of the first and second layers.

Targets for diffraction-based overlay error metrology

A metrology system may arrange metrology measurements for a plurality of metrology targets distributed in a plurality of fields on one or samples into a signal vector, where the metrology measurements associated with the metrology targets in each of the plurality of fields are grouped within the signal vector. The system may further decompose the signal vector into reconstruction vectors associated with different spectral components of the signal vector. The system may further classify a subset of the reconstruction vectors as components of a metrology model, where a sum of the components corresponds to a metrology model describing the metrology measurements on the one or more samples. The system may further generate control signals to control one or more processing tools based on the metrology model.

Universal metrology model

A system may include a controller for receiving one or more images of a metrology target including periodic features with one or more known pitches, pre-processing the one or more images using a decomposition technique to generate one or more pre-processed images, and generating one or more metrology measurements for the metrology target based on the one or more pre-processed images. Pre-processing a particular image of the one or more images may include constructing one or more trajectory matrices from the particular image, generating reconstruction components associated with the particular image from the one or more trajectory matrices using the decomposition technique, and generating a particular one of the one or more pre-processed images by based on a subset of the reconstruction components including signals with at least one of the one or more known pitches.

Image pre-processing for overlay metrology using decomposition techniques

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Migdal Haemek, Israel

Vladimir Levinski