Semiconductor film plating perimeter mapping and compensation
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorKyle M. Hanson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Conditions at the perimeter of the wafer may be characterized and used to adjust current stolen by the weir thief electrodes during a plating process to generate more uniform film thicknesses. An electrode may be positioned in a plating chamber near the periphery of the wafer as the wafer rotates. To characterize the electrical contacts on the seal, a wafer with a seed layer may be loaded into the plating chamber, and a constant current may be driven through the electrode into the conductive layer on the wafer. As an electrical characteristic of this current varies, such as a voltage required to drive a constant current, a mapping characterizing the seal quality or the openings in the mask layer may be generated.
Claims12
A method of characterizing seals around wafers during plating processes, the method comprising:
- causing a wafer to be rotated in a plating chamber, wherein the wafer is enclosed in a carrier that forms a seal around a periphery of the wafer, and the seal is electrically coupled to a conductive layer on the wafer through electrical contacts inside the seal;
- causing current to flow from an electrode in the plating chamber to the conductive layer on the wafer while the wafer is being rotated, wherein the current then flows through the conductive layer into the electrical contacts inside the seal;
- causing an electrical characteristic associated with the current to be measured while the current flows from the electrode to the conductive layer;
- and
- generating a characterization of how well the seal is electrically coupled to the conductive layer on the wafer around the periphery of the wafer based on the electrical characteristic.
A method of characterizing wafers during plating processes, the method comprising:
- causing a wafer to be rotated in a plating chamber, wherein the wafer comprises openings in a top layer that expose areas of a conductive layer underneath the top layer;
- causing current to flow from an electrode in the plating chamber to the conductive layer on the wafer while the wafer is being rotated;
- causing an electrical characteristic associated with the current to be measured while the current flows from the electrode to the conductive layer;
- generating a characterization of the openings in the top layer based on the electrical characteristic;
- and
- adjusting an amount of current stolen by one or more thief electrodes based on the characterization of the openings in the top layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.