JP2005277361A - Control system and control method of treatment device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a control system and a control method of a treatment device which can make a suitable processing profile fully satisfying a design specification and is excellent in reliability without requiring a quality check or determination by an official in charge. <P>SOLUTION: In a plurality of processes with respect to a workpiece, a treatment state in a designated process or the state of plasma equipment is monitored. Deviation between a simulated profile and a predetermined standard profile is detected by simulating a workpiece profile in the designated process in accordance with the monitoring result. A treatment condition for compensating the detected deviation is set with respect to a process following the designated process. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a manufacturing process development of a semiconductor and a liquid crystal TFT, and relates to a control system and a control method for a process apparatus that sequentially executes a plurality of steps on a workpiece.

  Semiconductor manufacturing processes are becoming more complicated with miniaturization and higher integration, resulting in an increase in the number of processes. In state-of-the-art memory devices, it is important that the manufacturing process has hundreds of steps and the entire process is performed stably and accurately.

  In a conventional manufacturing process, processing is performed using process conditions registered in each apparatus. However, the process apparatus fluctuates with the operation time, and the processing conditions of the process change. For this reason, after an important process, the film thickness measurement and processing width are measured by quality check, and the processing condition (also referred to as process condition) of the next process is changed according to the measurement data to absorb the fluctuation of the process. Processing is performed.

In addition, there exists what grasps | ascertains the shape of a workpiece by simulation (for example, patent document 1).
JP 2001-392565 A

  In the above-described conventional manufacturing process, a quality check by an attendant is necessary, and the attendant needs to appropriately determine the processing procedure of the subsequent process, which requires a lot of time and labor. In addition, when the quality check is increased, there is a problem that the time required for manufacturing becomes longer.

  In consideration of the above circumstances, the present invention is a control system and a control method for a process apparatus having excellent reliability that can obtain an appropriate machining shape that sufficiently satisfies a design specification without requiring quality check and judgment by an attendant. The purpose is to provide.

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a process apparatus control system for monitoring a process state in a predetermined process or a state of the plasma apparatus in each process in a process apparatus that sequentially executes a plurality of processes on a workpiece. In accordance with the monitoring result, the shape of the workpiece in the predetermined process is simulated, and a deviation between the simulated shape and a predetermined standard shape is detected. Then, a processing condition for compensating for the detected deviation is set for a process following the predetermined process.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a control system and a control method for a process apparatus excellent in reliability capable of obtaining an appropriate machining shape sufficiently satisfying a design specification without requiring quality check and judgment by a staff member.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, the process apparatus 1 includes a plurality of processing units 2-1, 2-2,. The processing unit 2-1 performs manufacturing of a transistor portion in the manufacturing process of the memory element. The processing unit 2-2 performs wiring that connects the transistor and the external signal line. Among these, in the processing unit 2-1, an oxidation process, an ion implantation process, a diffusion process, a film forming process, an etching process, a film forming process, and the like are sequentially performed as a plurality of processes on the workpiece. For example, a microwave-excited plasma processing apparatus as shown in FIG. 2 is mounted on the processing unit 2-1.

  In FIG. 2, reference numeral 11 denotes a microwave generator, and microwaves are supplied from the microwave generator 11 to the rectangular waveguide 12. The tip of the rectangular waveguide 12 is closed with a metal plate. A cylindrical applicator 13 is penetrated in the middle of the rectangular waveguide 12, and a dielectric cylinder 14 is inserted into the cylindrical applicator 13.

  One end of the cylinder 14 is closed, and a gas introduction pipe 15 is connected to the closed portion. Plasma is generated in the cylinder 14 by introducing a gas for generating plasma, for example, CF gas, from the gas introduction pipe 15 into the cylinder 14 and emitting a microwave from the microwave generator 11. The distribution region of the plasma generated in the cylinder 14 substantially corresponds to a location where the rectangular waveguide 12 and the cylinder 14 intersect.

  When plasma is generated in the cylinder 14, active species in the plasma are supplied from the cylinder 14 to the vacuum vessel 16. The vacuum vessel 16 is provided with an exhaust pipe 17 and a vacuum pump 18, and the inside of the vacuum vessel 16 is evacuated by the operation of the vacuum pump 18. The active species are supplied to the treatment section 19 in the vacuum container 16 that has been evacuated. By this supply, an arbitrary plasma process is performed on the workpiece on the treatment unit 19.

  As shown in FIG. 3, a management CIM 10 and a control system 20 of the present invention are connected to the process apparatus 1 having such a configuration. The control system 20 includes a monitor tool (monitor means) 21, an interface 22, a TCAD shape simulation section (simulation means) 23, a deviation detection section (detection means) 24, and a processing condition setting section (setting section) 25. .

  The monitor tool 21 monitors the processing state of a predetermined process among the steps in the process apparatus 1 and the state of the plasma apparatus 1. The monitoring tool 21 is appropriately combined with a plasma monitor, a surface monitor, an apparatus monitor, etc. to improve the accuracy of monitoring. I am trying. The interface 22 covers data transmission. The TCAD shape simulation section 23 is a well-known technique for simulating the shape of the workpiece in the predetermined process according to the monitoring result of the monitor tool 21. The deviation detection section 24 detects a deviation between the shape simulated by the TCAD shape simulation section 23 and a predetermined standard shape. The processing condition setting section 25 sets a processing condition (also referred to as a process condition) for compensating for the deviation detected by the deviation detection section 24 for the process following the predetermined process. The flow of processing so far is shown in the flowchart of FIG.

  The set processing conditions are sent to the process apparatus 1 via the interface 22. Thereby, appropriate processing is performed in the process apparatus 1. That is, when a simulation result is obtained in which the film thickness becomes thicker than the standard shape in the film forming process, a process for reducing the film thickness is executed in the next film forming process. When a simulation result is obtained in which the taper angle is smaller than the standard shape in the etching process, the power of the process apparatus 1 is increased in the next etching process. Thereby, the “deviation” of the taper angle in the previous process can be corrected in the next process.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of specific control. In the “m−1” step, a resist is patterned by lithography on Poly-Si, WSi, and SiN formed on the Si substrate. “M” and “m + 1” are both etching processes, and the workpiece is processed into a final shape by both processes. When etching is performed in the “m” process, the processing state and the state of the plasma apparatus 1 are monitored, and a TCAD shape simulation corresponding to the monitoring result is executed.

  In the example of FIG. 5, since the plasma density is low, it can be seen from the simulation that the actual processed groove width is narrower than the standard value D1 with respect to the standard processed groove width D1. If the “m + 1” step etching is performed under the standard processing conditions, the width of the processed groove is expected to be smaller than the standard value D1. Therefore, a “deviation” between the simulated shape and the standard shape is detected, and in the “m + 1” process, “low-speed etching” is performed to compensate for the “deviation” of the shape due to the low plasma density in the “m” process. Of the “standard etching” and “high-speed etching”, the third “high-speed etching” recipe is set as a processing condition. With this setting (with control), the machining shape in the “m + 1” process becomes an appropriate shape that sufficiently satisfies the design specifications, with the width of the machining groove being the standard value D1.

  FIG. 6 shows another example of specific control. “N” is an etching process, and “n + 1” is a tungsten filling process. In the etching process of “n”, the state of the process apparatus 1 fluctuated, so that the plasma density increased, and a hole deeper than the standard processing dimension D2 was processed in the embedded base. In this case, an increase in the plasma density is monitored and data is input to the TCAD simulation section 23, thereby simulating that the processed hole for the embedded base becomes deeper than the standard value D2. If the “n + 1” step is performed under the standard processing conditions, the upper surface of the buried tungsten is expected to be recessed.

  Therefore, a “deviation” between the simulated shape and the standard shape is detected, and in the next “n + 1” step, it is determined whether it is necessary to increase the amount of embedded tungsten by an amount corresponding to the “deviation”. Under this determination, the recipe of the first “high-speed embedding” among “high-speed embedding”, “standard embedding”, and “low-speed embedding” is set as a processing condition. With this setting (with control), the processed shape in the “n + 1” step becomes an appropriate shape that sufficiently satisfies the design specifications because the top surface of the buried tungsten is substantially flat.

FIG. 7 shows still another example of specific control. Poly-Si, SiN, and resist are formed on Si in the “O-1” process, etching is performed in the “O” process, and SiO ₂ film is formed in the “O + 1” process. In the “O” etching process, it is monitored that the ion energy of the plasma generated by the process apparatus 1 is high. According to the TCAD shape simulation corresponding to the monitoring result, it is expected that the etching taper angle is verticalized from the standard value “87 °” to “91 °”. When the vertical shape is subjected to an embedding process by the “O + 1” process under the standard process conditions, voids indicated by broken lines in SiO ₂ are generated as SiO ₂ defects.

  Therefore, a “deviation” between the simulated shape and the standard shape is detected, and in the next “O + 1” process, to compensate for the “deviation” of the shape due to the high ion energy of the plasma in the “O” process, Of the “low embedding”, “standard embedding”, and “high embedding”, the third “high embedding” recipe is set as the processing condition. With this setting (with control), the machining shape in the “O + 1” process is an appropriate shape that does not generate voids and sufficiently satisfies the design specifications.

  As described above, it is possible to obtain an appropriate machining shape that sufficiently satisfies the design specifications without requiring quality checks and processing procedure judgment by a staff member, thereby improving reliability. Since the staff does not need the quality check or the process judgment, the time and labor required for the quality check or the process judgment can be effectively utilized for another work. Since the quality check is eliminated or reduced, the time required for manufacturing can be greatly reduced. In addition, since an appropriate machining shape that sufficiently satisfies the design specifications can be obtained, the yield of each process can be increased.

  In the above embodiment, the control for compensating for “deviation” in the subsequent process has been described. However, it is also possible to compensate for “deviation” in the current process in which the shape simulation is performed. For example, when the power of the plasma film forming apparatus is high, control such as shortening the process time can be performed.

  In addition, the control system of the above embodiment can be used to reduce machine differences among a plurality of process apparatuses. The process condition from each process apparatus is monitored, a deviation from the reference value is judged, and the operation condition of the process apparatus is adjusted based on this. Thereby, the difference between the machine differences of each process apparatus can be reduced.

  In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments as they are, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. In addition, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of components disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment.

The block diagram which shows the outline | summary of the process apparatus in connection with one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the structure of the plasma processing apparatus mounted in the process apparatus concerning the embodiment in cross section. The block diagram which shows the control system of the embodiment. The flowchart which shows the flow of the process of the embodiment. The figure for demonstrating an example of control of the embodiment. The figure for demonstrating another example of control of the embodiment. The figure for demonstrating another example of control of the embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Process apparatus, 2-1, 2-2, 2-n ... Processing part, 20 ... Control system, 21 ... Monitor tool (monitor means), 22 ... Interface, 23 ... TCAD shape simulation section (simulation means), 24 ... Deviation detection section (detection means), 25 ... Processing condition setting section

Claims (2)

In a process apparatus that sequentially executes a plurality of steps on a workpiece,
A monitoring means for monitoring a processing state of a predetermined step among the respective steps or a state of the plasma apparatus;
Simulation means for simulating the shape of the workpiece in the predetermined process according to the monitoring result of the monitoring means;
Detecting means for detecting a deviation between the shape simulated by the simulation means and a predetermined standard shape;
Setting means for setting a processing condition for compensating for the deviation detected by the detection means for the step following the predetermined step;
A process apparatus control system comprising: In a process device that sequentially executes various processes on a workpiece,
Monitoring a processing state of a predetermined step among the respective steps or a state of the plasma apparatus;
Simulating the shape of the workpiece in each step according to the results of the monitoring;
Detecting a deviation between the simulated shape and a predetermined standard shape;
Setting means for setting a processing condition for compensating the detected deviation for a step following the predetermined step;
A process apparatus control method comprising:

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