公开(公告)号：US20180189964A1

公开(公告)日：2018-07-05

申请号：US15484961

申请日：2017-04-11

Applicant: KLA-Tencor Corporation

Inventor： Brent A. Riggs ,  Onur N. Demirer ,  William Pierson

IPC: G06T7/33 ,  G06T7/73

Abstract: A system for determining a sample map for alignment measurements includes a metrology tool and a controller. The controller defines a full sampling map including a plurality of measurement locations. The controller directs the metrology tool to measure alignment at each measurement location of the full sampling map for a plurality of samples to generate a reference alignment dataset, generates candidate sampling maps, each being a subset of the full sampling map. The controller may further estimate alignment as a function of location based on the two or more candidate sampling maps at each measurement location of the full sampling map, and determine a working sampling map by comparing the estimated alignment to the reference alignment dataset and selecting the candidate sampling map having a smallest number of alignment estimates exceeding a selected tolerance.

公开(公告)号：US10692227B2

公开(公告)日：2020-06-23

申请号：US15484961

申请日：2017-04-11

Applicant: KLA-Tencor Corporation

Inventor： Brent A. Riggs ,  Onur N. Demirer ,  William Pierson

IPC: G06T7/33 ,  G06T7/73 ,  G06F15/76 ,  G06F9/00 ,  G06T7/00

Abstract: A system for determining a sample map for alignment measurements includes a metrology tool and a controller. The controller defines a full sampling map including a plurality of measurement locations. The controller directs the metrology tool to measure alignment at each measurement location of the full sampling map for a plurality of samples to generate a reference alignment dataset, generates candidate sampling maps, each being a subset of the full sampling map. The controller may further estimate alignment as a function of location based on the two or more candidate sampling maps at each measurement location of the full sampling map, and determine a working sampling map by comparing the estimated alignment to the reference alignment dataset and selecting the candidate sampling map having a smallest number of alignment estimates exceeding a selected tolerance.

公开(公告)号：US10444639B2

公开(公告)日：2019-10-15

申请号：US15843371

申请日：2017-12-15

Applicant: KLA-Tencor Corporation

Inventor： Onur Nihat Demirer ,  William Pierson ,  Mark D. Smith ,  Jeremy S. Nabeth ,  Miguel Garcia-Medina ,  Lipkong Yap

IPC: G03F7/20 ,  H01L21/027 ,  G03F9/00

Abstract: A process control system includes a controller configured to generate a reference overlay signature based on one or more overlay reference layers of a sample, extrapolate the reference overlay signature to a set of correctable fields for the exposure of a current layer of the sample to generate a full-field reference overlay signature, identify one or more alignment fields of the set of correctable fields, generate an alignment-correctable signature by modeling alignment corrections for the set of correctable fields, subtract the alignment-correctable signature from the full-field reference overlay signature to generate feedforward overlay corrections for the current layer when the one or more overlay reference layers are the same as the one or more alignment reference layers, generate lithography tool corrections based on the feedforward overlay corrections, and provide the lithography tool corrections for the current layer to the lithography tool.

公开(公告)号：US20180253017A1

公开(公告)日：2018-09-06

申请号：US15867485

申请日：2018-01-10

Applicant: KLA-Tencor Corporation

Inventor： Michael E. Adel ,  Amnon Manassen ,  William Pierson ,  Ady Levy ,  Pradeep Subrahmanyan ,  Liran Yerushalmi ,  DongSub Choi ,  Hoyoung Heo ,  Dror Alumot ,  John Charles Robinson

IPC: G03F7/20

CPC classification number: G03F7/70633 ,  G03F7/705 ,  G03F7/70508 ,  G03F7/7085

Abstract: A process control system may include a controller configured to receive after-development inspection (ADI) data after a lithography step for the current layer from an ADI tool, receive after etch inspection (AEI) overlay data after an exposure step of the current layer from an AEI tool, train a non-zero offset predictor with ADI data and AEI overlay data to predict a non-zero offset from input ADI data, generate values of the control parameters of the lithography tool using ADI data and non-zero offsets generated by the non-zero offset predictor, and provide the values of the control parameters to the lithography tool for fabricating the current layer on the at least one production sample.