公开(公告)号：US20220357674A1

公开(公告)日：2022-11-10

申请号：US17684179

申请日：2022-03-01

Applicant: KLA Corporation

Inventor： Andrew V. Hill ,  Yoel Feler ,  Amnon Manassen ,  Mark Ghinovker ,  Yonatan Vaknin

IPC: G03F7/20 ,  G01B11/26

Abstract: An overlay metrology system may include an overlay metrology tool suitable for measurement of an overlay target on a sample, the overlay target including one or more grating structures with patterned features distributed along one or more measurement directions. The overlay metrology tool may include an objective lens and an illumination pathway to illuminate the overlay target with two or more oblique illumination lobes distributed among one or more illumination distributions such that, for each of the measurement directions, diffraction orders of the one or more illumination distributions by the overlay target that are collected by the objective lens exclusively include a 0-order diffraction lobe and a single first-order diffraction lobe from at least one of the two or more illumination lobes. The overlay metrology tool may further include at least one detector to image the sample and a controller to generate overlay measurements based on the images.

公开(公告)号：US11360398B2

公开(公告)日：2022-06-14

申请号：US17087417

申请日：2020-11-02

Applicant: KLA Corporation

Inventor： Roie Volkovich ,  Paul MacDonald ,  Ady Levy ,  Jincheng Pei ,  Jinyan Song ,  Amnon Manassen

IPC: G03F7/20

Abstract: A metrology system includes a controller communicatively coupled to one or more metrology tools. In another embodiment, the controller includes one or more processors configured to execute program instructions causing the one or more processors to receive one or more overlay metrology measurements of one or more metrology targets of the metrology sample from the one or more metrology tools; determine tilt from the one or more measurement overlay measurements; and determine one or more correctables for at least one of one or more lithography tools or the one or more metrology tools to adjust for the tilt, where the one or more correctables are configured to reduce an amount of tilt in the sample or overlay inaccuracy of the one or more overlay metrology measurements. The program instructions further cause the one or more processors to predict tilt with a simulator based on at least the determined tilt.

公开(公告)号：US11359916B2

公开(公告)日：2022-06-14

申请号：US16996328

申请日：2020-08-18

Applicant: KLA Corporation

Inventor： Andrew V. Hill ,  Amnon Manassen

IPC: G01B11/27 ,  G06T7/00

Abstract: A metrology system may include an illumination sub-system to illuminate a metrology target on a sample with illumination having a symmetric off-axis illumination profile, where the symmetric off-axis illumination profile is symmetric along one or more measurement directions, and where the illumination sub-system provides illumination from opposing angles in the symmetric off-axis illumination profile at least one of simultaneously or sequentially. The metrology target may include a first periodic structure on a first layer of the sample and a second periodic structure on a second layer of the sample. The metrology system may further include an imaging sub-system to generate images of the metrology target formed using two non-zero diffraction orders from each point of the symmetric off-axis illumination profile. The metrology subsystem may further determine an overlay error indicative of alignment between the first layer and the second layer based on the one or more images.

公开(公告)号：US11346657B2

公开(公告)日：2022-05-31

申请号：US17068328

申请日：2020-10-12

Applicant: KLA Corporation

Inventor： Amnon Manassen ,  Andrew V. Hill ,  Gilad Laredo

IPC: G01B11/27

Abstract: An overlay metrology tool may include an illumination source, illumination optics to illuminate an overlay target having periodic features with one or more illumination beams, collection optics to direct diffracted light from the periodic features of the overlay target to a detector, an adjustable pupil mask located at a pupil plane, and a controller. The adjustable pupil mask may include one or more individually-addressable control zones distributed across the one or more portions of the pupil plane to provide an adjustable pupil transmissivity distribution. The controller may direct the adjustable pupil mask to provide a selected pupil transmissivity distribution corresponding to a selected overlay metrology recipe, where the selected pupil transmissivity distribution corresponds to a selected configuration of the one or more control zones providing transmission of a selected set of diffraction orders from the target to the detector.

公开(公告)号：US11300405B2

公开(公告)日：2022-04-12

申请号：US17178089

申请日：2021-02-17

Applicant: KLA Corporation

Inventor： Amnon Manassen ,  Andrew V. Hill

IPC: G01B11/27 ,  G01B9/02 ,  G01B9/02015

Abstract: An overlay metrology system may include, an illumination sub-system, a collection sub-system and a controller. The illumination sub-system may include one or more illumination optics configured to direct an illumination beam to an overlay target on a sample as the sample is scanned along a stage-scan direction by a translation stage, where the overlay target includes one or more cells having a grating-over-grating structure with periodicity along the stage-scan direction. The collection sub-system may include an objective lens, a first photodetector located in a pupil plane at a location of overlap between 0-order diffraction and +1-order diffraction, and a second photodetector located in a pupil plane at a location of overlap between 0-order diffraction and −1-order diffraction. The controller may receive time-varying interference signals from the first and second photodetectors and determine an overlay error between the first and second layers of the sample along the stage-scan direction.

公开(公告)号：US20220108128A1

公开(公告)日：2022-04-07

申请号：US17060372

申请日：2020-10-01

Applicant: KLA Corporation

Inventor： Etay Lavert ,  Amnon Manassen ,  Yossi Simon ,  Dimitry Sanko ,  Avner Safrani

IPC: G06K9/62 ,  G06F3/0481 ,  G06T11/00 ,  G06N20/00 ,  G06N5/04

Abstract: A metrology system includes one or more through-focus imaging metrology sub-systems communicatively coupled to a controller having one or more processors configured receive a plurality of training images captured at one or more focal positions. The one or more processors may generate a machine learning classifier based on the plurality of training images. The one or more processors may receive one or more target feature selections for one or more target overlay measurements corresponding to one or more target features. The one or more processors may determine one or more target focal positions based on the one or more target feature selections using the machine learning classifier. The one or more processors may receive one or more target images captured at the one or more target focal positions, the target images including the one or more target features of the target specimen, and determine overlay based thereon.

公开(公告)号：US20210311401A1

公开(公告)日：2021-10-07

申请号：US17354307

申请日：2021-06-22

Applicant: KLA Corporation

Inventor： Andrew V. Hill ,  Amnon Manassen ,  Gilad Laredo ,  Yoel Feler ,  Mark Ghinovker ,  Vladimir Levinski

IPC: G03F7/20 ,  G01N21/956 ,  G01N21/95

Abstract: A metrology system may include a controller coupled to a scanning metrology tool that images a sample in motion along a scan direction. The controller may receive an image of a metrology target on the sample from the scanning metrology tool, where the metrology target comprises a first measurement group including cells distributed along a transverse direction orthogonal to the scan direction, and a second measurement group separated from the first measurement group along the scan direction including cells distributed along the transverse direction. The controller may further generate at least a first metrology measurement based on at least one of the cells in the first measurement group, and generate at least a second metrology measurement based on at least one of the cells in the second measurement group.

公开(公告)号：US20210191279A1

公开(公告)日：2021-06-24

申请号：US16647102

申请日：2020-02-14

Applicant: KLA CORPORATION

Inventor： Daria Negri ,  Amnon Manassen ,  Gilad Laredo

IPC: G03F7/20 ,  G06T7/00

Abstract: A system and method of measuring misregistration in the manufacture of semiconductor device wafers is disclosed. A first layer and the second layer are imaged in a first orientation with a misregistration metrology tool employing light having at least one first wavelength that causes images of both the first periodic structure and the second periodic structure to appear in at least two planes that are mutually separated by a perpendicular distance greater than 0.2 μm. The first layer and the second layer are imaged in a second orientation with the misregistration metrology tool employing light having the at least one first wavelength that causes images of both the first periodic structure and the second periodic structure to appear in the at least two planes. At least one parameter of the misregistration metrology tool is adjusted based on the resulting analysis.

公开(公告)号：US20210149313A1

公开(公告)日：2021-05-20

申请号：US17087417

申请日：2020-11-02

Applicant: KLA Corporation

Inventor： Roie Volkovich ,  Paul MacDonald ,  Ady Levy ,  Jincheng Pei ,  Jinyan Song ,  Amnon Manassen

IPC: G03F7/20

Abstract: A metrology system includes a controller communicatively coupled to one or more metrology tools. In another embodiment, the controller includes one or more processors configured to execute program instructions causing the one or more processors to receive one or more overlay metrology measurements of one or more metrology targets of the metrology sample from the one or more metrology tools; determine tilt from the one or more measurement overlay measurements; and determine one or more correctables for at least one of one or more lithography tools or the one or more metrology tools to adjust for the tilt, where the one or more correctables are configured to reduce an amount of tilt in the sample or overlay inaccuracy of the one or more overlay metrology measurements. The program instructions further cause the one or more processors to predict tilt with a simulator based on at least the determined tilt.

公开(公告)号：US10831108B2

公开(公告)日：2020-11-10

申请号：US15198902

申请日：2016-06-30

Applicant: KLA CORPORATION

Inventor： Tal Marciano ,  Barak Bringoltz ,  Evgeni Gurevich ,  Ido Adam ,  Ze'ev Lindenfeld ,  Zeng Zhao ,  Yoel Feler ,  Daniel Kandel ,  Nadav Carmel ,  Amnon Manassen ,  Nuriel Amir ,  Oded Kaminsky ,  Tal Yaziv ,  Ofer Zaharan ,  Moshe Cooper ,  Roee Sulimarski ,  Tom Leviant ,  Noga Sella ,  Boris Efraty ,  Lilach Saltoun ,  Amir Handelman ,  Eltsafon Ashwal ,  Ohad Bachar

IPC: G03F7/20 ,  H01L21/66 ,  G03F9/00

Abstract: Methods are provided for deriving a partially continuous dependency of metrology metric(s) on recipe parameter(s), analyzing the derived dependency, determining a metrology recipe according to the analysis, and conducting metrology measurement(s) according to the determined recipe. The dependency may be analyzed in form of a landscape such as a sensitivity landscape in which regions of low sensitivity and/or points or contours of low or zero inaccuracy are detected, analytically, numerically or experimentally, and used to configure parameters of measurement, hardware and targets to achieve high measurement accuracy. Process variation is analyzed in terms of its effects on the sensitivity landscape, and these effects are used to characterize the process variation further, to optimize the measurements and make the metrology both more robust to inaccuracy sources and more flexible with respect to different targets on the wafer and available measurement conditions.