Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Ying Ying Wang

Heng-Hsin Liu

Yung-Yao Lee

Yi-Ping Hsieh

Po-Chang Huang

Ai-Jen Hung

Kuan-Chi Chen

Chin-Chen Wang

Shellin Liu

Chin-Hsiang Lin

Heng-Jen Lee

Shin-Rung Lu

Yung-yao Lee

Lee Yung-Yao

A method includes receiving a wafer, measuring a surface topography of the wafer; calculating a topographical variation based on the surface topography measurement performing a single-zone alignment compensation when the topographical variation is less than a predetermined value or performing a multi-zone alignment compensation when the topographical variation is greater than the predetermined value; and performing a wafer alignment according to the single-zone alignment compensation or the multi-zone alignment compensation.

Lithographic overlay correction and lithographic process

A method includes receiving a wafer, defining a plurality of zones over the wafer, performing a multi-zone alignment compensation for each of the plurality of zones according to an equation along a first direction to obtain a plurality of compensation values for each of the plurality of zones, and performing a wafer alignment and a lithography exposure for each of the plurality of zones according to the plurality of compensation values. The wafer alignment and the lithography exposure are performed zone-by-zone.

An overlay measurement and correction method and device is provided. In an embodiment the measurement device takes measurements of a first semiconductor wafer and uses the measurements in a plurality of correction techniques to generate an overlay correction model. The plurality of correction techniques include a first order correction, a first intra-field high order parameter correction and a first inter-field high order parameter correction. The model is used to adjust the exposure parameters for the exposure of the next semiconductor wafer. The process is repeated on each semiconductor wafer for a run-to-run analysis.

Semiconductor manufacturing method and tool

Disclosed herein is a system and method for producing semiconductor devices using overlays, the method comprising associating one or more patterned overlays with respective ones of reserved regions in a layer template, receiving a layer design based on the layer template, identifying the reserved regions in the layer design, generating a production layer design based on the layer design, the production layer design describing at least one production overlay in one of the reserved regions, and fabricating one or more devices based on the production layer design.

Semiconductor overlay production system and method

Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method of alignment which includes defining a plurality of fields on the face of a wafer, and organizing the plurality of fields into an orthogonal field structure and two or more continuous field structures. A first number of alignment structure positions are measured within each field of the two or more continuous field structures, and a second number of alignment structure positions are measured within each field of the orthogonal field structure, the second number being greater than the first number. The feature or layer is then aligned to the previously formed feature or layer based upon the measured alignment structure positions of the two or more continuous field structures and the orthogonal field structure.

Lithographic overlay sampling

Among other things, one or more systems and techniques for scanner alignment sampling are provided. A set of scan region pairs are defined along a periphery of a sampling area associated with a semiconductor wafer. Alignment marks are formed within scan regions of the set of scan region pairs, but are not formed within other regions of the sampling area. In this way, scan region pairs are scanned to determine alignment factors for respective scan region pairs. An alignment for the sampling area, such as layers or masks used to form patterns onto such layers, is determined based upon alignment factors determined for the scan region pairs.

Paired edge alignment

One embodiment relates to a method for semiconductor workpiece processing. In this method, a baseline tool induced shift (TIS) is measured by performing a baseline number of TIS measurements on a first semiconductor workpiece. After the baseline TIS has been determined, the method determines a subsequent TIS based on a subsequent number of TIS measurements taken on a first subsequent semiconductor workpiece. The subsequent number of TIS measurements is less than the baseline number of TIS measurements.

Tool induced shift reduction determination for overlay metrology

A process for use in lithography, such as photolithography for patterning a semiconductor wafer, is disclosed. The process includes receiving an incoming semiconductor wafer having various features and layers formed thereon. A unit-induced overlay (uniiOVL) correction is received and a deformation measurement is performed on the incoming semiconductor wafer in an overlay module. A deformation-induced overlay (defiOVL) correction is generated from the deformation measurement results by employing a predetermined algorithm on the deformation measurement results. The defiOVL and uniiOVL corrections are fed-forward to an exposure module and an exposure process is performed on the incoming semiconductor wafer.

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Xin-Zhu, Taiwan

Ying Ying Wang