Method for measuring a characteristic dimension of at least one pattern on a disc -shaped object in a measuring instrument
AssigneeInfineon Technologies AG
InventorsOliver Broermann, Diana Mattiza, Sebastian Schmidt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The measurement of the width of a pattern on a semiconductor wafer or a flat panel is carried out in an optical microscope or a scanning electron microscope in a number of measuring steps, By a computing rule, the quality of the correlation between the measured data obtained in the individual measurement steps, as well as reference data taken from the design, the value for the parameter is calculated and compared with a limiting value obtained from experience. In the event of violation of the limiting value, a signal is generated and the further processing of the object is interrupted.
Claims14
A method for measuring a characteristic dimension of at least one pattern on a disc-shaped object in a measuring instrument, the measurement instrument having a lens system and a computing and control unit, the at least one pattern being formed in at least one fabrication step and subsequently being checked by the measurement, comprising:
- measuring at least one alignment mark for aligning the provided disc-shaped object relative to the lens system of the measuring instrument;
- measuring the at least one pattern in order to detect the at least one pattern on the disc-shaped object;
- measuring the at least one pattern in order to set the lens system to achieve a sharp image of the at least one pattern;
- and
- measuring the characteristic dimension of the at least one pattern, wherein at least one of the measuring steps is assigned in each case a parameter and in each case a computing rule for determining a value for the parameter, which represents the quality of the measuring step respectively carried out, a limiting value is assigned to the parameter, the computing and control unit applies the computing rule to calculate the value of the parameter from the measured data obtained in the at least one measuring step, the computing and control unit compares the calculated value of the parameter with the assigned limiting value, and at least one of the fabrication steps required to form the pattern is repeated for the disc-shaped object in the event of overshooting of at least one of the limiting values.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.