JPS6328036A - Manufacture of semiconductor device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten a processing step required for one semiconductor substrate by omitting following step for an abnormal chip if the pattern obtained from the result of a midway photoetching step has an abnormality. CONSTITUTION:The pattern of each chip on a semiconductor substrate obtained after photoetching is compared to be collated with the original photomask pattern to sequentially decide following step and advance it. The pattern collation is executed, for example, when the size of the pattern obtained after etching is excessively thinner than the original photomask pattern and the chip having the excessively thinner pattern than the predetermined dimensional value is disposed on a semiconductor substrate, the following processing step to the chip is omitted. When the part of the pattern obtained after etching is abnormal as compared with the original photomask pattern, the following processing step is omitted for such a chip.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] Industrial applications The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device.

Conventional technology In conventional semiconductor device manufacturing methods, insulating films such as oxide films and nitride films, or wiring metal films, etc., are patterned using a photoetching process, and various devices are mass-produced on a single semiconductor substrate. was forming.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In such conventional manufacturing methods, even if the photo-etching process is performed on many chips on one semiconductor substrate, the etched pattern obtained after the etching process is not inspected and the next etching process is performed. Because the process was progressing, even if there was a pattern distortion defect caused by dust or the like during each etching process, the next process was performed on the chip and the manufacturing process continued.

For this reason, extra steps are added for defective chips.
Furthermore, the losses from the inspection process that is also performed on the resulting defective chips, and the losses from quality assurance such as the burn-in process that is performed to prevent market defects caused by mildly defective chips are extremely large. be.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device that removes defective chips at an early stage by adding a pattern matching step in the middle of the manufacturing process. be.

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention includes the steps of pattern-inspecting a photoresist using a photomask pattern step-and-repeat method, etching the material under the photoresist, and converting the etched pattern of the material into the photomask pattern. This method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes a step of checking the material pattern and storing a defective pattern among the material patterns.

According to the present invention, if the etched pattern of the material under the photoresist is significantly different from the desired photomask pattern, it is immediately recognized and memorized after the material is etched, and in subsequent manufacturing steps, By omitting the photoresist process for the chip portion of this defective pattern and performing so-called skip processing, it is possible to speed up the process and eliminate defective chips at an early stage.

Embodiment As shown in the process flowchart of FIG. 1, the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device of the present invention compares and verifies the pattern of each chip on the semiconductor substrate obtained after photoetching with the original photomask pattern, thereby controlling the subsequent steps. It is a matter of making decisions one after another and moving forward. Second example of pattern matching
This will be explained using figures. FIG. 2(a) shows a case where the dimension of the pattern obtained after etching is too small compared to the original photomask pattern, and when there is a chip on the semiconductor substrate with a pattern that is too thin than the predetermined dimension value, this The subsequent processing steps for the chip are omitted.

FIG. 2(b) shows a case where a part of the pattern 7 obtained after etching has an abnormal shape compared to the original photomask pattern, and even in such a chip, the subsequent processing steps are omitted.

A specific method for pattern matching is to scan the surface of the chip with an electron beam, and detect the image of the etching pattern by detecting the difference between the reflected beams between the material to be etched and the underlying material. The dimensions of this etched pattern are numerically compared with the dimensions of the original photomask pattern, and if the difference is not within a predetermined value even at one location within the chip, the chip is determined to be defective. In this case, the intra-wafer coordinate values of the defective chip are stored. Alternatively, a mark indicating a defective chip in the form of a pad of several tens of microns square is exposed to the beam at the upper left end of the defective chip, and when a difference signal is detected at the position in the next process, the process skips to the next chip. If this is done, only completely non-defective chips will be created on the wafer regarding the planar pattern.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, in the manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, if there is an abnormality in the pattern obtained as a result of an intermediate photoetching process, the subsequent process is omitted for the chip with the abnormality. As a result, the processing steps required per semiconductor substrate can be shortened. In FIG. 1, in the case of a semiconductor device manufacturing method with nine photoetching steps (n=9), in the conventional example, nine steps were performed on all chips, but in the case of the present invention, defective chips are At this stage, the same chip is memorized, the process is instructed to stop, and the next process is not performed. Therefore, the number of steps is considerably reduced.

Furthermore, if the process for a defective chip is stopped midway, the defective chip has already been stored in the step-and-repeat system, so that the inspection process for the same chip can be omitted in the inspection process.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of the manufacturing process in an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) show examples of defective pattern shapes in pattern inspection of the present invention. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and one other person Figure 2 (Hi) (b)

Claims (1)

[Claims] In addition to patterning the photoresist using a step-and-repeat photomask pattern and wet or dry etching the material under the photoresist, the etched pattern of the material is compared with the photomask pattern, A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, which includes a process for storing defective patterns.