Method and system for controlling profile of critical dimension
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsJun SHIMADA, Chen-Fon CHANG, Chih-Teng LIAO
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Abstract
An etching apparatus is provided to be able to rotate or tilt a substrate holder on which a to-be-processed substrate is placed. According to a profile of a pre-process critical dimension of the substrate, the etching apparatus may rotate or tilt the substrate holder during an etching process in order to achieve a desired profile of a post-process critical dimension of the substrate that is related to the pre-process critical dimension.
Claims20
A method for controlling a profile of a critical dimension of a substrate, comprising:
- forming a plurality of first features that have a pre-process critical dimension on the substrate;
- measuring the pre-process critical dimension of the first features at multiple portions of the substrate to generate pre-process substrate data that indicates measured values of the pre-process critical dimension;
- placing the substrate on a substrate holder of an etching apparatus for performing an etching process on the substrate, the etching process corresponding to a substrate process recipe predetermined for the substrate, and, in the etching process, a plurality of particles being provided over the substrate;
- performing a recipe adjustment calculation for the substrate to generate recipe adjustment data, wherein the recipe adjustment calculation includes calculating adjustment to be made to the substrate process recipe based on the pre-process substrate data, the recipe adjustment data indicates the adjustment thus calculated, and the adjustment includes one of rotating the substrate holder and tilting the substrate holder;
- determining process parameters of the etching process for the substrate based on the substrate process recipe and the recipe adjustment data;
- and
- performing the etching process on the substrate according to the process parameters, so as to form a plurality of second features that correspond to the first features, the second features having a post-process critical dimension related to the pre-process critical dimension.
A system for performing an etching process on a substrate, comprising an etching apparatus that includes:
- a chamber for performing the etching process on the substrate therein, wherein, in the etching process, a plurality of particles are provided over the substrate;
- a substrate holder disposed in the chamber for placing the substrate thereon;
- a spindle connected to the substrate holder;
- a first motor connected to the spindle;
- and
- a control block electrically connected to the first motor, disposed to receive process data related to the etching process, and configured to control the first motor to rotate the substrate holder through the spindle based on the process data, so as to bring the substrate into rotation during the etching process.
A method for controlling a profile of a critical dimension of a substrate, comprising:
- forming a plurality of first features having a pre-process critical dimension on the substrate;
- analyzing a profile of the pre-process critical dimension for the substrate;
- and
- performing an etching process on the substrate to form a plurality of second features on the substrate, wherein the second features correspond to the first features and have a post-process critical dimension that is related to the pre-process critical dimension;
- wherein the substrate is rotated during the etching process when analysis of the profile of the pre-process critical dimension reveals that the pre-process critical dimension measured at a peripheral portion of the substrate is smaller than that measured at a central portion of the substrate on average;
- and
- wherein the substrate is tilted during the etching process when analysis of the profile of the pre-process critical dimension reveals that the pre-process critical dimension measured at a specific portion of the substrate that corresponds to a specific angular range of the substrate is greater than that measured at the remaining portions of the substrate on average.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.