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US 2023/0065641 A1Published application
Wafer profiling for etching system
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsJeffrey Chi Cheung, John Ghekiere, Jerry D. Leonhard, David P. Surdock, Benjamin Shafer, Ray Young
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A substrate etching system includes a support to hold a wafer in a face-up orientation, a dispenser arm movable laterally across the wafer on the support, the dispenser arm supporting a delivery port to selectively dispense a liquid etchant onto a portion of a top face of the wafer, and a monitoring system comprising a probe movable laterally across the wafer on the support.
Claims17
A substrate etching system, comprising:
- a rotatable spindle;
- a support on the rotatable spindle to hold a wafer in a face-up orientation;
- a dispenser arm movable laterally across the wafer on the support, the dispenser arm supporting a delivery port to selectively dispense a liquid etchant onto a portion of a top face of the wafer;
- and
- an optical monitoring system comprising a light source, a detector, and an optical fiber to carry light from the light source to the wafer and carry reflected light from the wafer to the detector, wherein an end of the optical fiber is secured to the dispenser arm such that the end of the optical fiber is movable laterally across the wafer on the support with the dispenser arm;
- and
- a controller configured to cause the dispenser arm to move laterally across the wafer such that the optical monitoring system generates measurements at a plurality of different radial positions on the wafer, and to determine, before starting dispensing of liquid etchant, whether the wafer placed on the support is misaligned or whether there is a tilt of the wafer using a magnitude of the reflected light.
4 more elements
A substrate etching system, comprising:
- a rotatable spindle;
- a support on the rotatable spindle to hold a wafer in a face-up orientation;
- a dispenser arm movable laterally across the wafer on the support, the dispenser arm supporting a delivery port extending downwardly below the top edge of the sidewall to selectively dispense a liquid etchant onto a portion of a top face of the wafer;
- an optical monitoring system comprising a light source, a spectrometer, and an optical fiber to carry light from the light source to the wafer and carry reflected light from the wafer to the spectrometer, wherein an end of the optical fiber is secured to the dispenser arm adjacent the delivery port such that the end of the optical fiber is movable laterally across the wafer on the support with the dispenser arm, and wherein the end of the optical fiber is arranged adjacent the delivery port and oriented to direct light onto the wafer substantially normal to the surface of the wafer;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- cause the probe to move laterally across the wafer such that the optical monitoring system generates measurements at a plurality of different radial positions on the wafer, receive a measurement of a spectrum reflected from the wafer,
- select annular zones for the measurements based on positions of the arm at times of the measurements,
- determine an etching rate from the measurements;
- detect variations in the etching rate from a target etch rate profile, and to adjust a dwell time of the port or a flow rate of the etchant to reduce variations in the etching rate from the target etch rate profile.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.