US 2024/0404042 A1Published application

Shape characteristic value estimation apparatus, shape characteristic value estimation method, and storage medium

AssigneeTokyo Electron Limited

InventorsToyohisa TSURUDA, Masato HOSAKA

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Abstract

An apparatus includes: an acquisitor for acquiring a processed image including information about a surface of a processed substrate after a process of a target film; an estimator for estimating a shape characteristic value of the target film, by applying, to the processed image, an estimation model associated with a correlation between information about a color of the substrate included in the processed image and the shape characteristic value; a creator for creating an unprocessed-substrate influence model associated with a correlation between a difference between an estimation result of the shape characteristic value by the estimator and a shape characteristic value of the target film acquired without using the estimation model, and information about a color of an unprocessed substrate before the process of the target film, and a corrector for correcting the estimation result of the shape characteristic value based on the unprocessed-substrate influence model.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A shape characteristic value estimation apparatus, comprising:

a processed-image acquisitor configured to acquire a processed image including image information about a surface of a processed substrate after a process of a target film;
an estimator configured to estimate a shape characteristic value of the target film, by applying, to the processed image, an estimation model for estimating the shape characteristic value of the target film, the estimation model being associated with a correlation between information about a color of the substrate included in the processed image and the shape characteristic value relating to a shape of the target film formed on the substrate;
an unprocessed-substrate influence model creator configured to create an unprocessed-substrate influence model associated with a correlation between a difference between an estimation result of the shape characteristic value of the target film by the estimator and a shape characteristic value of the target film acquired without using the estimation model, and information about a color of an unprocessed substrate before the process of the target film, and
an estimation-result corrector configured to correct the estimation result of the shape characteristic value of the target film by the estimator based on the unprocessed-substrate influence model,
wherein the unprocessed-substrate influence model creator is configured to execute:
an operation of dividing a plural number of the processed image into a first set of processed images and a second set of processed images;
an operation of creating a first candidate for the unprocessed-substrate influence model based on the first set of processed images and creating a second candidate for the unprocessed-substrate influence model based on the second set of processed images;
and
an operation of determining the unprocessed-substrate influence model by comparing a result of correction of the estimation result by the estimation result corrector based on the first candidate with a result of correction of the estimation result by the estimation result corrector based on the second candidate.

6 more elements

A shape characteristic value estimation method of estimating a shape characteristic value relating to a shape of a target film formed on a substrate, the shape characteristic value estimation method comprising:

acquiring a processed-image including image information about a surface of a processed substrate after a process of the target film;
estimating the shape characteristic value of the target film by applying, to the processed-image, an estimation model for estimating the shape characteristic value of the target film, which is associated with a correlation between information about a color of the substrate included in the processed image and the shape characteristic value of the target film formed on the substrate;
creating an unprocessed-substrate influence model relating to a correlation between a difference between an estimation result of the shape characteristic value of the target film and a shape characteristic value of the target film obtained without using the estimation model, and information about a color of an unprocessed substrate before the process of the target film;
and
correcting the estimation result of the shape characteristic value of the target film based on the unprocessed-substrate influence model,
wherein the creating the unprocessed-substrate influence model includes:
dividing a plural number of the processed image into a first set of processed images and a second set of processed images;
creating a first candidate for the unprocessed-substrate influence model based on the first set of processed images and creating a second candidate for the unprocessed-substrate influence model based on the second set of processed images;
and
determining the unprocessed-substrate influence model by comparing a result of correction of the estimation result based on the first candidate with a result of correction of the estimation result based on the second candidate.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.