US 12,374,571 B2 · Displacement measurements in semiconductor wafer processing

Abstract

Wafers that begin as flat surfaces during a semiconductor manufacturing process may become warped or bowed as layers and features are added to an underlying substrate. This warpage may be detected between manufacturing processes by rotating the wafer adjacent to a displacement sensor. The displacement sensor may generate displacement data relative to a baseline measurement to identify areas of the wafer that bow up or down. The displacement data may then be mapped to locations on the wafer relative to an alignment feature. This mapping may then be used to adjust parameters in subsequent semiconductor processes, including adjusting how a carrier head on a polishing process holds or applies pressure to the wafer as it is polished. A model may be trained to provide control signals for a polishing/cleaning process, or to generate metrology data.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

one or more displacement sensors positioned to measure a displacement of a wafer as the wafer is rotated on a platform;
a cleaning or polishing chamber configured to clean or polish the wafer;
and
a computer system configured to perform operations comprising:
receiving, for the wafer, displacement data generated using the one or more displacement sensors, wherein the displacement data indicates displacement of the wafer relative to the one or more displacement sensors;
providing the displacement data to a model that is trained using displacement data sets;
generating control signals for the cleaning or polishing chamber based on output from the model in response to receiving the displacement data as input;
and
using the control signals to control the cleaning or polishing process for the wafer.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Displacement measurements in semiconductor wafer processing

Life of this patent

Displacement measurements in semiconductor wafer processing

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20