KR20080109562A - Apparatus of measuring stage position coordinations in semiconductor manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

A stage on which a substrate on which a process is to be performed is mounted, a laser interferometer for measuring position coordinates of the stage, and a gyro sensor installed at a laser oscillation unit of the laser interferometer to sense the degree of vibration, and a front end of the laser oscillator A laser beam axis including an adjustment lens optical system installed at an optical element for adjusting a path of a laser beam, and a correction driver of a servo motor for adjusting a position of the adjustment lens optical system to compensate for fluctuations in the laser beam axis according to a vibration signal detected by a gyro sensor. A stage coordinate measuring apparatus of a semiconductor manufacturing equipment including an adjusting unit is provided.

Description

Apparatus of measuring stage position coordinations in semiconductor manufacturing equipment

1 is a view schematically illustrating a stage coordinate measuring apparatus of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 and 3 are schematic views for explaining the operation of the stage coordinate measuring apparatus of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to semiconductor device manufacturing, and more particularly, to a stage coordinate measuring apparatus for semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

The semiconductor manufacturing equipment for manufacturing a semiconductor device has a stage on which a substrate on which a manufacturing process is to be performed is mounted. Equipment that requires precise control of the position coordinates of the substrate, such as exposure equipment and measurement equipment, is provided with a stage coordinate measuring device for precisely detecting the coordinates of the stage. Such stage coordinate measurement uses a laser interferometer, for example, to measure coordinates.

By the way, when the laser oscillator which generates a laser beam by vibration is oscillated by mechanical vibration or the like, the beam axis of the laser beam irradiated to read the position coordinate of the stage is oscillated, so that the correct coordinate Difficulties have arisen in reading or reproducibility of coordinate measurements. In order to suppress transmission of the vibration caused by the vibration, a vibration damper or an active vibration pad is installed. However, efforts have been continuously made to purify and reproduce the coordinate measurement by the laser interferometer more practically. Is being performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in an effort to provide a stage coordinate measuring apparatus that can more accurately measure coordinates of a stage of a semiconductor device manufacturing equipment by suppressing interference caused by external factors due to vibration.

One aspect of the present invention for the above technical problem, by the stage on which the substrate is to be carried out the process, a laser oscillator for generating a laser beam (laser beam) for measuring the position coordinates of the stage, and by the laser beam A laser interferometer including an interference optical system for the path of the laser beam for measuring the position of the stage, a gyro sensor installed at the laser oscillation unit and detecting a vibration degree, and installed at the front end of the laser oscillation unit And a laser beam axis adjustment unit including an adjustment optical system for adjusting the path of the laser beam, and a correction driver for adjusting the position of the adjustment optical system to compensate for the fluctuation of the laser beam axis according to the vibration signal sensed by the gyro sensor. A stage coordinate measuring apparatus for semiconductor manufacturing equipment is presented.

The adjustment optical system may include a lens that refracts the path of the laser beam according to the positional shift by the correction driver.

According to the present invention, the fluctuation of the measurement laser beam according to the fluctuation of the laser beam oscillation part of the laser interferometer for the coordinates of the stage of the semiconductor device manufacturing equipment can be compensated and adjusted to suppress the interference caused by the external factors caused by vibration. A stage coordinate measuring apparatus capable of accurately measuring stage coordinates can be proposed.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a laser interferometer is introduced as a device for measuring position coordinates of a stage of a semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and a gyro sensor unit for detecting fluctuations in a laser oscillation unit of the laser interferometer is provided. A beam adjustment optical system for receiving a signal of the fluctuation detected by the feed back and adjusting the fluctuation of the laser beam is introduced.

1 is a view schematically illustrating a stage coordinate measuring apparatus of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 and 3 are schematic views for explaining the operation of the stage coordinate measuring apparatus of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a stage coordinate measuring apparatus of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention may be used to measure position coordinates of a wafer stage of an exposure apparatus. The stage coordinate measuring apparatus is configured to collect the position information of the stage 310 by the laser interferometer 100, and transmit such position information to the control unit 330 of the exposure equipment to be aligned during the exposure process. Can be. The laser interferometer 100 is introduced to measure the movement or movement distance of the stage 310 on which the substrate or wafer on which the process is to be performed is mounted.

The laser interferometer 100 may have various deformation forms, but the distance of the movement of the stage 310 by the laser beam interference by providing a path of the laser oscillation unit 110 and the laser beam to generate the laser beam 111 for measurement. An interferometric optical system including beam splitters 120 and 130 and mirrors 140 and 150 for measuring the back, receivers 171 and 175 for receiving a measuring laser beam, and received beams It may be configured to include a signal processor 170 for processing a signal according to.

The laser beam generated by the laser oscillator 100 is incident to the first beam splitter 120, and is beam split into the first measurement beam and the first reference beam by the first beam splitter 120. The first reference beam is received by the first receiver 171 and input to the signal processor 170, and the first measurement beam is incident on the reference mirror 140 by the second beam splitter 130. The second reference beam is split into a second measurement beam that is attached to the stage 310 and is incident on a moving mirror 150 that is moved in accordance with the movement of the stage 310. The second measurement beam reflected by the moving mirror 150 and incident again to the second beam splitter 130 and the second reference beam reflected by the reference mirror 140 are incident to the second beam splitter 130. Interfering with each other and transmitted to the second receiver 175 by the refractive mirror 135 to receive the light. The signal processor 170 signals the signals of the beams received by the second receiver 175 and the first receiver 171, respectively, and measures the position coordinates of the stage 310. The measured position coordinate information is transmitted to the control unit 330 and used to adjust the position of the stage 310 by exposure alignment.

When the laser oscillator 100 is oscillated by mechanical vibration or other factors, the path of the laser beam 111 irradiated from the laser oscillator 100 may deviate from the set beam axis. In this case, the position coordinate signal to be measured is substantially unstable and includes an error. In the embodiment of the present invention, in order to suppress the measurement error caused by the oscillation of the laser oscillator 100, the laser beam axis adjustment unit for compensating the beam axis oscillation of the laser beam 111 according to the oscillation so as not to deviate from the set reference position 200 is introduced.

The beam axis adjuster 200 includes a gyro sensor 210 installed in the laser oscillator 110 to detect the degree of vibration generated in the laser oscillator 110. The gyro sensor unit 210 detects the vibration of the laser oscillator 110, and the detected signal is transmitted to the correction controller 230. The beam axis adjusting unit 200 may include an adjusting optical system 250 for adjusting the path of the laser beam 111 at the front end of the laser oscillating unit 110. The correction control unit 230 adjusts the position of the adjustment optical system 250 to compensate for the degree of oscillation of the beam axis according to the detected degree of vibration, and thus the path of the laser beam 111 deviating from the normal beam axis set by the oscillation. To adjust. Such beam axis adjustment may be performed by driving a driving unit 270 that adjusts the position of the adjustment optical system 250, for example, a servo motor.

When the fluctuation of the laser beam 111 is generated by the vibration of the laser oscillator 110, the gyro sensor unit 210 detects this and calculates the positional movement of the adjustment optical system 250 to compensate for the beam fluctuation. 270 is driven. The process of correcting the fluctuation of the laser beam 111 is, as shown in Figures 2 and 3, a stabilizing lens that provides a different degree of refraction on the beam path according to the positional movement of the incident laser beam (112, 114) (stabilizer lens 251) can be implemented by the position shift. The stabilizing lens 251 may be configured as a lens that provides a refractive angle differently as the position where the laser beams 112 and 114 are incident, that is, as the incident angle is different, like the concave lens.

Referring to FIG. 2, the path of the laser beam 112 passing through the stabilizing lens 251 and the focusing lens 253 in the oscillation of the laser beam may deviate from the set beam axis. This deviation with respect to the beam axis, as shown in Figure 3, by varying the angle of incidence of the substantially different angle of incidence of the laser beam 114 incident on the stabilizing lens 251 by the positional movement, for example, the downward movement of the stabilizing lens 251. Can be corrected by That is, as the incident angle is changed, the refractive index of the laser beam 114 is changed, and accordingly, the laser beam 114 emitted may be adjusted to match the beam axis. The information about the position movement of the stabilizing lens 251 is calculated from the signal of the vibration degree of the laser beam 111 collected by the gyro sensor unit 210, and according to the calculated movement degree of the driving unit 9070 The servo motor is driven to move the position of the stabilizing lens 251.

As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention, when collecting the position coordinate information of the stage 310 by using the laser interferometer (100 in FIG. 1), even if the measurement laser beam (111 in FIG. 1) is shaken by vibration, the gyro The degree of vibration shaken by the sensor unit 210 is grasped to feed back to the servo motor of the driving unit 270. By this feedback, the lens 251 of the adjustment optical system 250 is moved to adjust the laser beam 111 to match a predetermined constant beam axis. Accordingly, it is possible to suppress an error from occurring during measurement of the position information of the stage 310 due to the vibration, thereby enabling more accurate position coordinate measurement.

According to the present invention described above, it is possible to perform the stage position coordinate measurement by the laser interferometer more precisely. Accordingly, stage position control of semiconductor manufacturing equipment such as exposure equipment can be performed more precisely and accurately.

As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated in detail through the specific Example, this invention is not limited to this, It is clear that the deformation | transformation and improvement are possible by the person of ordinary skill in the art within the technical idea of this invention.

Claims (2)

A stage on which a substrate on which a process is to be performed is mounted; A laser interferometer including a laser oscillator for generating a laser beam for measuring the position coordinates of the stage, and an interference optical system for the path of the laser beam for measuring the position of the stage by the laser beam; And A gyro sensor unit installed at the laser oscillation unit to sense a vibration level, an adjustment optical system installed at the front end of the laser oscillation unit to adjust a path of the laser beam, and a vibration signal detected by the gyro sensor And a laser beam axis adjustment unit including a correction driver for adjusting the position of the adjustment optical system to compensate for the fluctuation of the laser beam axis. The method of claim 1, And said adjustment optical system comprises a lens for refracting a path of said laser beam in accordance with a positional movement by said correction driver.

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