CN104103544B - Wafer defect monitoring method - Google Patents
Wafer defect monitoring method Download PDFInfo
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- CN104103544B CN104103544B CN201410377374.5A CN201410377374A CN104103544B CN 104103544 B CN104103544 B CN 104103544B CN 201410377374 A CN201410377374 A CN 201410377374A CN 104103544 B CN104103544 B CN 104103544B
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L22/00—Testing or measuring during manufacture or treatment; Reliability measurements, i.e. testing of parts without further processing to modify the parts as such; Structural arrangements therefor
- H01L22/10—Measuring as part of the manufacturing process
- H01L22/12—Measuring as part of the manufacturing process for structural parameters, e.g. thickness, line width, refractive index, temperature, warp, bond strength, defects, optical inspection, electrical measurement of structural dimensions, metallurgic measurement of diffusions
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Abstract
The invention discloses a wafer defect monitoring method, which can be used for improving the spot check rate of a wafer produced by a defective process device in time according to the result of a process performance test item detected by the process device, thereby automatically adjusting the monitoring rule and method of the wafer defect, carrying out targeted online defect monitoring, improving the probability of detecting the defective wafer, improving the operation efficiency of production and reducing the production cost.
Description
Technical Field
The invention relates to the technical field of semiconductor manufacturing, in particular to a method for monitoring defects of a semiconductor wafer.
Background
Advanced integrated circuit manufacturing processes generally comprise hundreds of steps, tiny errors in any link can cause the failure of the whole chip, and particularly, along with the continuous reduction of the critical dimension of a circuit, the requirements on process control are stricter, so that high-sensitivity optical defect detection equipment is required to be configured for timely finding and solving problems in the actual production process to carry out online detection on products.
The basic principle of the conventional wafer defect detection is to convert an optical image on a chip into data images represented by different bright and dark gray scales, fig. 1 shows a process of converting an image obtained under an optical microscope into data image features, and then the positions of defects are detected by comparing data patterns on adjacent chips. As shown in fig. 2, the adjacent 3 chips are obtained by simultaneously collecting the graphic data of the 3 chips, and then comparing the chip B with the chip a to obtain the position with signal difference as shown in fig. 3, and comparing the chip B with the chip C to obtain the position with signal difference as shown in fig. 4, so that the same position of the difference signal in the two comparison results is the position of the defect detected on the chip B.
Generally, the defect detection speed is slower than the process speed of the process equipment, so in the actual production process, a certain rule is usually set for sampling detection. Currently, it is commonly used in the art to control according to lot ID of the product, which is generally defined as a letter plus a string of numbers, such as a12345, so that when a lot with a set mantissa of 1 or 5 enters a defect inspection station for inspection, as shown in fig. 5, 20% of the products in the production line are spot inspected.
However, the existing monitoring method is too random, lacks pertinence in local risk management and control, and causes random production cost increase.
Therefore, it is one of the technical problems to be solved by those skilled in the art how to provide a more targeted monitoring method for wafer defects according to the characteristics of the processing equipment in the production line.
Disclosure of Invention
In order to achieve the objective of the present invention, the present invention provides a wafer defect monitoring method for solving the problem that the prior art cannot detect defects on a wafer comprehensively.
The wafer defect monitoring method provided by the invention comprises the following steps:
step S01, providing a wafer production line, wherein the production line comprises a plurality of process equipment and at least one wafer defect detection equipment, wherein each process equipment detects whether the process performance test items of the process equipment meet the specification according to a preset period by the process performance test equipment, and the wafer defect detection equipment randomly detects the wafers produced by the process equipment according to a preset rule;
step S02, when the process performance testing device detects that a process performance testing item of a certain process device does not meet the specification, the wafer defect detecting device corresponding to the process performance testing item increases the sampling rate of the wafer produced by the process device.
Further, if the process performance test item is a process condition affecting the surface characteristics of the wafer, the wafer defect detection equipment corresponding to the process performance test item is optical defect detection equipment; and if the process performance test item is a process condition influencing the internal or bottom characteristics of the wafer, the wafer defect detection equipment corresponding to the process performance test item is electron beam defect detection equipment.
Further, the process conditions affecting the surface characteristics of the wafer comprise a particle test item and a growth rate test item; the process conditions that affect the features inside or at the bottom of the wafer include etch rate test items.
Furthermore, the production line comprises at least two production processes, each production process at least comprises one piece of process equipment, and the process equipment of each production process at least adopts one piece of corresponding wafer defect detection equipment to randomly inspect the wafers.
Furthermore, the process performance test items of each process equipment are used for randomly inspecting the wafers by at least one corresponding wafer defect detection equipment.
Further, the range of the improved spot-check rate is 10-100%.
Further, the range of the improved spot-check rate is 20-60%.
Further, step S02 includes marking, by the production execution system, the process equipment whose process performance test item is out of specification, and instructing the corresponding wafer defect inspection equipment to increase the sampling rate of the wafer produced by the process equipment.
Further, the wafer defect monitoring method further comprises the following steps: step S03, when the process performance testing item of the processing equipment is restored to meet the specification, the wafer defect detecting equipment corresponding to the process performance testing item restores the random inspection rate of the wafer produced by the processing equipment to the preset rule.
According to the wafer defect monitoring method, the spot check rate of the wafer produced by the defective processing equipment is timely improved according to the result of the process performance test item detected by the processing equipment, so that the monitoring rule and method of the wafer defect are automatically adjusted, targeted online defect monitoring is carried out, the probability of detecting the defective wafer is improved, the operation efficiency of production is improved, and the production cost is reduced.
Drawings
For a more complete understanding of the objects, features and advantages of the present invention, reference is now made to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a prior art circuit for converting an optical image into a data gray scale image;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of three adjacent chips in a conventional wafer defect monitoring method;
FIG. 3 is a data comparison diagram of the chip B and the chip A in FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a data comparison diagram of the chip B and the chip C in FIG. 2;
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a conventional wafer defect monitoring method;
FIG. 6 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a wafer defect monitoring method according to the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a first embodiment of the method of the present invention;
fig. 8 is a schematic view of a second embodiment of the method of the present invention.
Detailed Description
Referring to fig. 6, the wafer defect monitoring method of the present embodiment includes the following steps:
step S01, providing a wafer production line, wherein the production line comprises a plurality of process equipment and at least one wafer defect detection equipment, wherein each process equipment detects whether the process performance test items of the process equipment meet the specification according to a preset period by the process performance test equipment, and the wafer defect detection equipment randomly detects the wafers produced by the process equipment according to a preset rule;
step S02, when the process performance testing device detects that a process performance testing item of a certain process device does not meet the specification, the wafer defect detecting device corresponding to the process performance testing item increases the sampling rate of the wafer produced by the process device.
By the wafer defect monitoring method, the spot check rate of the wafer produced by the defective processing equipment is timely improved according to the result of the process performance test item detected by the processing equipment, so that the monitoring rule and the method of the wafer defect are automatically adjusted, targeted online defect monitoring is carried out, the probability of detecting the defective wafer is improved, the operation efficiency of production is improved, and the production cost is reduced.
Preferably, the process performance test item can be a process condition affecting the surface characteristics of the wafer, and the wafer defect detection equipment corresponding to the process performance test item is optical defect detection equipment; if the process performance test item is a process condition affecting the internal or bottom characteristics of the wafer, the wafer defect detection equipment corresponding to the process performance test item is electron beam defect detection equipment. The process conditions influencing the surface characteristics of the wafer comprise a particle test item and a growth rate test item; the process conditions that affect the features inside or at the bottom of the wafer include etch rate test items.
First embodiment
Referring to fig. 7, the production line of this embodiment includes three production processes, which respectively include 3 contact hole etching devices, 2 titanium nitride metal film growth devices, and 2 metal tungsten mechanical polishing devices, where the 3 contact hole etching devices respectively have a particle testing device and an etching rate testing device, and the production line of this embodiment further includes two wafer defect detecting devices, which are respectively an optical defect detecting device disposed behind the titanium nitride metal film growth device and an electron beam defect detecting device disposed behind the metal tungsten mechanical polishing device.
The production line of this embodiment can work the product of 5 models altogether, and the preset selective examination rule is: electron beam defect detection equipment carries out electron beam defect detection on 3 models of products at a spot inspection rate of 30%; the optical defect inspection apparatus performs optical surface grain defect inspection at a 20% spot-check rate for 5 models of products.
When the etching rate of the No. 1 contact hole etching equipment is low in a daily etching rate test, the system automatically increases the electron beam defect detection frequency of the wafer batch produced by the No. 1 contact hole etching equipment after the metal tungsten mechanical grinding equipment from 30% to 60%, so that targeted detection is carried out, the electron beam defect detection rules of the No. 2 and No. 3 contact hole etching equipment are unchanged, and the working flow is shown in FIG. 7.
Second embodiment
Referring to fig. 8, the layout of the production line in this embodiment is the same as that in the first embodiment, and the preset sampling rule is also the same as that in the first embodiment.
When the contact hole etching equipment No. 2 of the embodiment has the phenomenon that the particles exceed the specification in the daily particle test, the system automatically increases the frequency of detecting the optical surface particle defects of the wafer batch produced by the contact hole etching equipment No. 2 behind the metal titanium nitride film growth equipment from 20% to 50%, so that the targeted detection is carried out, the optical defect detection rules of the contact hole etching equipment No. 1 and No. 3 are unchanged, and the working flow is shown in FIG. 8.
The two embodiments respectively comprise three production processes, each production process comprises three, two and two pieces of process equipment, and the process equipment of each production process is used for randomly inspecting the wafers by at least one corresponding wafer defect detection equipment, so that the probability of detecting the defective wafers can be improved, and the wafers produced by each process equipment have the possibility of being detected. In order to further improve the probability of detecting the defective wafers and further improve the production quality of the production line, the process performance test items of each process equipment can be set to be at least one corresponding wafer defect detection equipment for wafer sampling inspection.
In other embodiments, the enhanced spot check rate (i.e., the detection frequency described above) may range between 10-100%. Preferably 20-60%, and the probability of detecting defective wafers can be increased while considering the production efficiency. In addition, in order to improve the automation efficiency of the inspection, the operation of increasing the spot check rate may be performed by the production execution system, and specifically, step S02 includes marking, by the production execution system, the process equipment whose process performance test item is out of specification, and instructing the corresponding wafer defect inspection equipment to increase the spot check rate of the wafer produced by the process equipment.
In practical application, the wafer defect monitoring method of the invention further comprises a step of recovering the spot check rate, so that the spot check rate of the preset rule is recovered after the process performance test item result of the process equipment meets the specification, and the production efficiency is improved. Specifically, the method comprises the following steps: step S03, when the process performance testing item of the processing equipment is restored to meet the specification, the wafer defect detecting equipment corresponding to the process performance testing item restores the random inspection rate of the wafer produced by the processing equipment to the preset rule.
Claims (7)
1. A method for monitoring wafer defects is characterized by comprising the following steps:
step S01, providing a wafer production line, wherein the production line comprises a plurality of process equipment and at least one wafer defect detection equipment, wherein each process equipment detects whether the process performance test items of the process equipment meet the specification according to a preset period by the process performance test equipment, and the wafer defect detection equipment randomly detects the wafers produced by the process equipment according to a preset rule; the process performance test items are process conditions influencing the surface characteristics of the wafer, and the process conditions influencing the surface characteristics of the wafer comprise particle test items and growth rate test items; or, the process performance test item is a process condition affecting the internal or bottom features of the wafer, and the process condition affecting the internal or bottom features of the wafer comprises an etching rate test item;
step S02, when the process performance testing device detects that a process performance testing item of a certain process device does not meet the specification, the wafer defect detecting device corresponding to the process performance testing item increases the sampling rate of the wafer produced by the process device.
2. The wafer defect monitoring method of claim 1, wherein: if the process performance test item is a process condition influencing the surface characteristics of the wafer, the wafer defect detection equipment corresponding to the process performance test item is optical defect detection equipment; and if the process performance test item is a process condition influencing the internal or bottom characteristics of the wafer, the wafer defect detection equipment corresponding to the process performance test item is electron beam defect detection equipment.
3. The wafer defect monitoring method of any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein: the production line comprises at least two production processes, each production process at least comprises one piece of process equipment, and the process equipment of each production process at least comprises a wafer which is randomly inspected by one corresponding wafer defect detection equipment.
4. The wafer defect monitoring method of claim 3, wherein: and the process performance test items of each process device are obtained by randomly inspecting the wafers by using at least one corresponding wafer defect detection device.
5. The wafer defect monitoring method of any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein: the range of the improved spot-check rate is 20-60%.
6. The wafer defect monitoring method of any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein: step S02 includes the production execution system marking a certain process equipment that has a certain process performance test item that does not meet the specification, and instructing the corresponding wafer defect inspection equipment to increase the sampling rate of the wafer produced by the certain process equipment.
7. The wafer defect monitoring method of any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein: the wafer defect monitoring method further comprises the following steps: step S03, when the process performance testing item of the processing equipment is restored to meet the specification, the wafer defect detecting equipment corresponding to the process performance testing item restores the random inspection rate of the wafer produced by the processing equipment to the preset rule.
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| US10031997B1 (en) * | 2016-11-29 | 2018-07-24 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | Forecasting wafer defects using frequency domain analysis |
| CN110473772B (en) * | 2019-08-22 | 2021-10-19 | 上海华力微电子有限公司 | Method for establishing wafer back side graph database |
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| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
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| CN1729560A (en) * | 2002-12-18 | 2006-02-01 | 先进微装置公司 | Dynamic adaptive sampling rate for model prediction |
| CN1816906A (en) * | 2003-07-07 | 2006-08-09 | 先进微装置公司 | Method and apparatus for performing metrology dispatching based upon fault detection |
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| TW499724B (en) * | 2001-05-31 | 2002-08-21 | Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg | System for dynamically monitoring the stability of machine process |
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| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
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| CN1729560A (en) * | 2002-12-18 | 2006-02-01 | 先进微装置公司 | Dynamic adaptive sampling rate for model prediction |
| CN1816906A (en) * | 2003-07-07 | 2006-08-09 | 先进微装置公司 | Method and apparatus for performing metrology dispatching based upon fault detection |
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