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US 2022/0102118 A1Published application
Etch apparatus for compensating shifted overlayers
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsChun-Yen Chang, Yu-Tien Shen, Chih-Kai Yang, Ya-Hui Chang, Shih-Ming Chang
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Abstract
The current disclosure includes a plasma etching system that includes a movable plasma source and a moveable wafer stage. A relative position between the movable plasma source and the movable wafer stage can be varied to set up an angle along which plasma particles of the plasma hits a wafer positioned on the wafer stage.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- a plasma processing chamber;
- a wafer stage, structured to be positioned in the plasma processing chamber and to hold a wafer;
- a plasma source, structured to be positioned in the plasma processing chamber and to emit plasma of ions into the plasma processing chamber and toward the wafer stage;
- a metrology unit configured to determine a metrology measurement of a feature on the wafer;
- and
- a control mechanism, configured to vary a first angle between a transit path of the ions of the plasma of ions and a surface of the wafer held on the wafer stage based on the metrology measurement of the feature.
3 more elements
A method, comprising:
- receiving a metrology measurement information of a first feature on a first layer of a wafer;
- determining an alignment state between the first feature and a second feature on a second layer of the wafer;
- determining an ion approach angle of a plasma etching based on the alignment state;
- and
- conducting the plasma etching on the wafer along the ion approach angle using a plasma system.
2 more elements
A method, comprising:
- receiving a wafer having a second layer over a substrate and a first layer over the second layer on a first surface of the wafer, the first layer including a patterned first feature;
- determining that the patterned first feature includes a metrology error;
- and
- forming a second feature on the second layer through plasma etching using the patterned first feature as a mask, the forming the second feature including:
- determining a direction along which ions of the plasma etching hit the first surface of the wafer based on the metrology error;
- and
- conducting the plasma etching according to the direction along which the ions of the plasma etching hit the first surface of the wafer.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.