Apparatus and method of measuring defects in an ion implanted wafer by heating the wafer to a treatment temperature and time to substantially stabilize interstitial defect migration while leaving the vacancy defects substantially unaltered.
AssigneeQC Solutions, Inc.
InventorsKenneth Steeples, Edward Tsidilkovski
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to the use of the metrology methods and the related apparatus disclosed herein that incorporate thermal treatment devices and methods that improve defect detection. Specifically, in one aspect the invention relates to method of thermally treating a semiconductor wafer such that an acceleration of interstitial defect migration is achieved while leaving vacancy defects substantially unaltered.
Claims23
A method of measuring defects in an ion implanted semiconductor wafer, the method comprising the steps of:
- a) heating the wafer to a treatment temperature for a treatment time to substantially stabilize interstitial defect migration while leaving vacancy defects substantially unaltered;
- b) conveying the wafer such that a surface of the wafer is substantially parallel to a surface photovoltage electrode of a head assembly;
- c) exposing at least a portion of the wafer to light having a wavelength and having an intensity;
- d) detecting with the surface photovoltage electrode a photovoltage induced at the surface of the wafer in response to the modulated light intensity;
- and
- e) calculating an electrical property of the wafer from the photovoltage induced at the surface of the wafer.
An apparatus for measuring defects in an ion implanted semiconductor wafer, the apparatus comprising:
- a heating element adapted for heating each wafer to a specified temperature for a specified time period such that interstitial defect migration is stabilized while leaving vacancy defects substantially unaltered;
- a head assembly comprising a surface photovoltage electrode;
- a conveyer for conveying the wafer such that a surface of the wafer is substantially parallel to the surface photovoltage electrode of the head assembly during the semiconductor processing;
- a light source generating light having a wavelength, and having an intensity, the light source being modulated over a plurality of frequencies;
- and
- a detector for detecting with the surface photovoltage electrode a photovoltage induced at the surface of the wafer in response to the light;
- and
- a processor in electrical communication with the detector for calculating an electrical property of the wafer from the photovoltage induced at the surface of the wafer.
A method of measuring damage of an ion implanted semiconductor wafer during semiconductor processing, the method comprising the steps of:
- a) growing an oxide layer on the semiconductor wafer;
- b) performing ion implantation on the wafer;
- heating the wafer to a temperature T1 for a time period P1, such that the selection of T1 and P1 substantially stabilize interstitial defect migration while leaving vacancy defects substantially unaltered;
- c) conveying the wafer such that a surface of the wafer is substantially parallel to a surface photovoltage electrode of a head assembly during the semiconductor processing;
- d) exposing at least a portion of the wafer to light having a wavelength and having an intensity, the light intensity being modulated at a frequency;
- e) detecting with the surface photovoltage electrode a photovoltage induced at the surface of the wafer in response to the light;
- f) calculating an electrical property of the wafer from the photovoltage induced at the surface of the wafer;
- and
- g) repeating steps d-f for a plurality of light intensity modulation frequencies.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.