Disclosure of Invention
The embodiment of the application provides a method for improving alignment precision, and solves the problem that in the related technology, the precision error of wafer alignment is not high. The method comprises the following steps:
setting overlay precision marks in each alignment mark area of the photomask pattern layer;
calculating the overlay adjustment amount corresponding to the photomask layer through a wafer pre-alignment system; the alignment adjustment quantity is obtained by calculation based on measurement parameters of wafer exposure, the measurement parameters comprise symmetry and asymmetry rotation parameters and expansion parameters of an exposure unit in each direction, and the alignment adjustment quantity comprises error compensation of deformation calculation of an exposure area of an adjacent layer of a machine table, and the error compensation can cause the deviation error of the wafer exposure direction to exceed an error threshold;
calculating the pre-compensation amount of the photomask layer based on the set overlay precision mark and the measurement parameters of wafer exposure; the pre-compensation amount is used for eliminating error compensation in the overlay adjustment amount;
and calculating to obtain an alignment adjustment value of the next wafer exposure process based on the alignment adjustment amount and the pre-compensation amount.
Further, the setting of the overlay accuracy mark in each alignment mark region of the photomask pattern layer includes:
acquiring the photomask layer in the current exposure process, wherein the exposure layer is provided with a preset number of alignment mark areas;
setting the overlay precision mark in the alignment mark area, wherein the overlay precision mark is not overlapped with the alignment identification mark in the alignment mark area, and each alignment mark area comprises four alignment identification marks for positioning the position of the corresponding alignment mark area;
and the exposure machine exposes the wafer on the wafer worktable according to the wafer pre-alignment system and transfers the photomask graph to the wafer.
Further, the calculating, by the wafer pre-alignment system, an overlay adjustment amount corresponding to the mask layer includes:
acquiring the actual alignment result of the surface of the wafer, and measuring the offset, the symmetric expansion and the asymmetric expansion of each alignment mark area in the x-axis direction and the offset, the symmetric expansion and the asymmetric expansion in the y-axis direction in the exposure process;
and performing model prediction based on the measurement parameters and the wafer pre-alignment system to obtain the alignment adjustment amount of the machine in the next exposure process.
Further, the calculating the pre-compensation amount of the photomask layer based on the set overlay accuracy mark and the measurement parameter of the wafer exposure includes:
calculating the predicted compensation amount of each alignment mark area in the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction through the wafer pre-alignment system; calculating correction compensation quantity of the alignment mark region in the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction based on the overlay precision mark;
a pre-compensation amount in the x-axis direction is calculated based on a difference between the predicted compensation amount and the mis-compensation amount in the x-axis direction, and a pre-compensation amount in the y-axis direction is calculated based on a difference between the predicted compensation amount and the corrected compensation amount in the y-axis direction.
Further, the calculating an overlay adjustment value for a next wafer exposure process based on the overlay adjustment amount and the pre-compensation amount includes:
and calculating the overlay adjustment value of the exposure machine in the next exposure process based on the overlay adjustment value and the difference value of the pre-compensation amount in the x-axis direction and the pre-compensation amount in the x-axis direction, wherein the overlay adjustment value eliminates the error compensation calculated by the wafer pre-alignment system in the previous layer exposure.
Further, the wafer pre-alignment system is established based on a pre-alignment model, and the overlay adjustment amount is predicted by measuring the measurement parameters of the exposed wafer and performing model operation.
Furthermore, the alignment adjustment value further includes a process error of an exposure machine, and the exposure machine adjusts the mask layer, the mask worktable and the wafer worktable through the process error and the alignment adjustment value to improve the alignment precision of exposure to a precision threshold.
The beneficial effect that above-mentioned technical scheme brought includes at least: in the application, the wafer pre-alignment system is optimized on the basis of the original wafer pre-alignment system, error compensation caused by difference of front and back layers due to exposure is reduced on the basis of the alignment adjustment amount output by the original wafer pre-compensation system, the alignment precision is improved, error compensation caused by deformation of an exposure area of an adjacent image layer is effectively avoided, and by combining adjustment of mechanical alignment deviation in the pre-compensation system, the optimized compensation system can output a more accurate alignment adjustment value.
Detailed Description
To make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more clear, embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Reference herein to "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship.
As shown in fig. 1, in the related art, when mask alignment is performed using a wafer pre-alignment system, a mask pattern is transferred onto a wafer by performing a pre-exposure process based on the mask layer and alignment marks, and then an actual deviation of the alignment marks or a predetermined mark area is calculated by a metrology system. The parameters measured by the pre-alignment system include the offset Tx of the measurement point in the X-axis direction, the expansion Exp _ X in the X-axis direction, the offset Ty in the Y-axis direction, the expansion Exp _ Y in the Y-direction, the rotation ROT of the wafer, the orthogonal quantity Non-orthogonal of the wafer, the orthogonal quantity of the wafer (the rotation asymmetry in the X and Y directions), and the like.
Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an alignment mechanism of an exposure machine. Taking the X-axis direction as an example, after the exposure machine performs mask alignment and exposure based on the wafer pre-alignment system, in the Lot1 layer, due to the expansion coefficient of the wafer, the mark point or the mark area expands in the X direction, and at this time, the expansion R _ Mag =0.5 of the X symmetry of the exposure unit is obtained by measurement and calculation, so that the actual alignment mark is shifted to the left by-5 nm compared with the alignment mark in an ideal state (actually, the alignment mark is not aligned by the machine, resulting in point shift). In Lot2, the mark point or mark area shrinks in the X direction, and at this time, the expansion R _ Mag = -0.2 in the X symmetry of the exposure unit, so the actual alignment mark is shifted to the right by +2nm compared to the alignment mark in an ideal state. In the two alignment processes, the exposure machine will use the calculated offset as the basis for adjusting the machine action, for example, the wafer workbench and/or the photomask workbench is moved to further align the alignment mark, the two shot levels cause an alignment cumulative deviation of 7nm, the more the exposure times, the larger the cumulative error, and the larger the wafer overlay deviation.
Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a method for improving alignment precision according to an embodiment of the present application, including the following steps:
step 201, obtaining a photomask layer in the current exposure process, where a preset number of alignment mark areas are arranged in the exposure layer.
Since the pre-alignment system accounts for the symmetric and asymmetric expansion of the wafer in a particular exposure area to the errors in the adjustment of the next exposure stage, improvements are needed to eliminate the errors. In the scheme, one or more alignment mark areas are arranged in a photomask pattern layer exposed on a wafer, and in one possible implementation mode, the alignment mark areas are uniformly arranged around the circumference, and one circle or more circles of alignment mark areas can be arranged. As shown in fig. 3, two circles of alignment mark regions are disposed on the mask layer and surround the geometric center of the mask layer. In the scheme, various offset values are calculated by establishing a coordinate axis based on the circle center or establishing a coordinate axis based on the edge position.
Step 202, an alignment precision mark is set in the alignment mark region, and the alignment precision mark is not overlapped with the alignment identification mark in the alignment mark region.
As shown in fig. 3, each alignment mark region is provided with a positioning mark, the alignment mark regions are set to be rectangular, the positioning marks are located at four corners of the rectangular alignment mark region and are used for identifying and measuring by a measuring machine, and the overlay accuracy marks are located in the region except for the ultraviolet regions of the four alignment identification marks and do not coincide with each other. Optionally, the positioning mark and the alignment identification mark are one step accuracy of the exposure machine.
Step 203, obtaining the actual alignment result of the wafer surface, and measuring the offset, the symmetric expansion and the asymmetric expansion of each alignment mark region in the x-axis direction, and the offset, the symmetric expansion and the asymmetric expansion in the y-axis direction during the exposure process.
After the exposure machine performs a first exposure overlay according to the mask pattern layer, the mask pattern is transferred onto the wafer, and then the actual overlay result of the wafer surface is detected by a measuring machine or system, so as to measure the offset Tx, the symmetric expansion R _ Mag (x-axis direction), the asymmetric expansion AR _ Mag (x-axis direction), the offset Tx, the symmetric expansion R _ Mag (y-axis direction), and the asymmetric expansion AR _ Mag (y-axis direction) of each alignment mark region in the y-axis direction during the exposure process. It should be noted that the data measured by the wafer pre-alignment system further includes the rotation degree and the orthogonal amount in each direction. When the scheme is optimized, the symmetric and asymmetric expansion data in the scheme needs to be captured.
And step 204, model prediction is carried out based on the measurement parameters and the wafer pre-alignment system, and the alignment adjustment quantity of the machine table in the next exposure process is obtained.
The wafer pre-alignment system is established based on a pre-alignment model, measured data are input into the model to predict the variation trend of the whole and partial regions of the wafer, and finally the overlay adjustment amount Pt is output. The overlay adjustment is adjustment data for the next exposure period, and the adjustment at least includes a mask, a mask stage, a wafer stage, and the like. The overlay adjustment amount Pt comprises an adjustment amount of overlay deviation prediction caused by mechanical factors, and also comprises error compensation of deformation calculation of an exposure area of an adjacent image layer.
Step 205, calculating the prediction compensation amount of each alignment mark region in the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction by the wafer pre-alignment system; and calculating correction compensation amounts of the corresponding alignment mark areas in the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction based on the overlay precision marks.
The overlay adjustment output by the wafer pre-alignment system includes the error compensation of the machine due to the deformation calculation of the exposure area of the adjacent image layer, and this error compensation is not caused by the machine, and if the overlay adjustment is calculated by default, the wafer exposure direction offset error exceeds the error threshold. According to the scheme, after the alignment adjustment amount is calculated, the predicted compensation amounts T _ x (-1, model) and T _ y (-1, model) of each alignment mark region in the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction are further sequentially obtained from a wafer pre-alignment system, and the correction compensation amounts shift _ x (-1) and shift _ y (-1) of the corresponding alignment mark region in the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction are calculated based on the alignment precision mark. Where-1 represents the corresponding correlation data during the previous layer exposure. The correction compensation amount is an offset of the wafer in the x-axis direction calculated according to the overlay accuracy mark, such as a distance (x-axis direction or y-axis direction) of the mark point from the center or edge area, and the prediction compensation amount is a predicted distance from the center or edge area of the entire alignment mark area or exposure area.
In step 206, a pre-compensation amount in the x-axis direction is calculated based on a difference between the predicted compensation amount and the corrected compensation amount in the x-axis direction, and a pre-compensation amount in the y-axis direction is calculated based on a difference between the predicted compensation amount and the corrected compensation amount in the y-axis direction.
The formula can be expressed as: t _ x (-1, intra) = shift _ x (-1) -T _ x (-1, model)
T_y(-1,intra)=shift_y(-1)-T_y(-1,model)
T _ x (-1, intra) represents the pre-compensation amount in the x-axis direction of the front layer, and T _ y (-1, intra) represents the pre-compensation amount in the y-axis direction of the front layer. That is, the variation value (mis-compensation) of the overlay accuracy mark in the alignment mark region is compensated after the exposed wafer is deformed. It should be noted that in the present embodiment, the overlay deviation value is calculated in the overlay adjustment amount due to other factors, such as the overlay deviation caused by the mechanical structure.
And step 207, calculating an alignment adjustment value of the exposure machine in the next exposure process based on the alignment adjustment value and the difference between the pre-compensation amount in the x-axis direction and the pre-compensation amount in the x-axis direction.
It should be noted that, during the exposure process, other process deviations may also occur in the exposure machine, the partial deviation value is not a description object of the exposure expansion of the wafer in the present solution, the process deviation is PIE, and assuming that the overlay adjustment value in the lower layer is PC, the formula may be represented as: PC = PIE + Pt-T _ x (-1, intra) -T _ y (-1, intra).
It should be noted that, the present solution includes a plurality of alignment mark regions and overlay accuracy marks, the prediction compensation system performs comprehensive calculation according to all measured values, and when the expansion degrees of each region of the wafer are different, a plurality of groups of values can be calculated to respectively represent the pre-compensation amounts of different alignment mark regions, and then a weighted calculation or an average calculation is performed to obtain a final overlay adjustment value.
To sum up, optimizing on the basis of the original wafer pre-alignment system in the application subtracts the error compensation caused by the difference of the front layer and the rear layer due to exposure on the basis of the alignment adjustment quantity output by the original wafer pre-compensation system, improves the alignment precision, effectively avoids the error compensation caused by the deformation of the exposure area of the adjacent image layers, and combines the adjustment of the mechanical alignment deviation in the pre-compensation system to optimize some compensation systems to output more accurate alignment adjustment values.
The above description is of the preferred embodiment of the invention; it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described above, in that devices and structures not described in detail are understood to be implemented in a manner common in the art; any person skilled in the art can make many possible variations and modifications, or modify equivalent embodiments, without departing from the technical solution of the invention, without affecting the essence of the invention; therefore, any simple modification, equivalent change and modification made to the above embodiments according to the technical essence of the present invention are within the scope of the technical solution of the present invention, unless the technical essence of the present invention is not departed from the content of the technical solution of the present invention.