Method and apparatus for determining photoresist pattern linearity
AssigneeInfineon Technologies AG
InventorsTobias Mono, Uwe Paul Schroeder
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Method and apparatus for determining photoresist pattern linearity. The method and apparatus comprises a substrate and a measuring pattern (26) printed on the substrate comprising a series of parallel lines (37) having a line width (36) and having a pre-determined pitch. By magnifying the semiconductor wafer on which the pattern feature (34) is printed and analyzing the magnified wafer from a top down view, the linearity of the pattern feature (34) can be determined from the amount of shift in the edges of the pattern feature (34). By utilizing the method and apparatus for other pattern features, the linearity of the entire pattern can be determined.
Claims22
A method for measuring the linearity of a pattern printed on a semiconductor wafer having a photoresist layer into which the pattern is transferred and having at least one layer located beneath the photoresist layer, the pattern having a plurality of pattern features with at least two edges, the method comprising:
- determining expected pattern edges for each of the plurality of pattern features from a design criteria;
- formulating measuring patterns on the semiconductor wafer in the at least one layer located beneath the photoresist layer, each measuring pattern corresponding to one of the plurality of pattern features and comprising a series of parallel lines having a pre-determined pitch and oriented at an angle with respect to at least one of the expected pattern edges of the corresponding pattern feature;
- magnifying the semiconductor wafer;
- analyzing the magnified semiconductor wafer in a top down view;
- measuring the number of parallel lines in each measuring pattern which are obscured by one of the at least two edges of the corresponding pattern feature;
- and
- deriving the linearity of the pattern based upon the number of obscured parallel lines and the pitch of said parallel lines for each measuring pattern.
The method of claim 2 wherein the pre-determined pitch is defined as the distance between the second edge of a one of the series of parallel lines and the second edge of another of the series of parallel lines which is adjacent to the one of the series of parallel lines.
An apparatus for measuring the linearity of a pattern feature formed in a photoresist layer formed atop a semiconductor substrate, the pattern feature having at least two pattern edges, the apparatus comprising:
- a substrate;
- and
- a layer formed atop the substrate, the layer including a measuring pattern comprising a series of parallel lines having a line width defined by a first and a second edge and having a pre-determined pitch;
- wherein the pattern feature obscures one or more of the parallel lines and the linearity of the pattern feature can be determined from the non-obscured parallel lines.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.