Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems have become one of the representative system nodes in the semiconductor industry. As EUV systems have been widely implemented to shrink integrated circuits, the importance of overlay control is increasing as much as patterning control. In terms of overlay control in lithography systems, a projection optics module is a key factor in determining the distortion of the overlay. In this paper, we present characteristics of EUV projection optics affecting overlay and propose a methodology predicting distortion of the overlay by calculating pattern shift using aberrations of EUV projection optics as an input. Also, the non-telecentricity of EUV systems is taken into account while calculating pattern shift as understanding the optical feature of EUV is required to explain the results of calculated distortion. Experimental results of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) devices are presented to understand different behaviors between the projection optics structure of DUV and EUV scanners.
An absolute alignment measurement of an underlayer and overlayer of overlay mark enables an innovative overlay control by which each layer’s grid errors can be independently corrected, versus of a conventional relative overlay measurement and control. We demonstrate an absolute alignment measurement of stacked overlay marks such as Diffraction-Based Overlay (DBO) by adopting a unique method incorporated in a standalone, image-based alignment metrology system. An alignment accuracy of each layer is evaluated using product wafers by comparing alignment measurement result to the reference data. In conclusion, we were able to achieve R2>0.97 coefficient.
In most leading-edge technologies, first layers usually are more critical than later layers. For some technologies, however, most critical layers are in mid-of line. On such technologies, less advanced equipment is used for first layers. Because such tools are not so stable, the overlay variation must be compensated on advanced tools used for later layers. Wafer-to-wafer variation is typically corrected by wafer alignment. By standard wafer alignment, intra-field variations are usually not corrected. Because of the instability of the older tools, additional marks to compensate intra-field variation were measured on advanced tools. This reduces the wafer-to-wafer variation but causes throughput loss. Therefore, sampling plans were optimized to reduce the number of intra-field marks by 50%. This was verified by run-to-run simulations and experiments.
To produce high-yielding wafers, overlay control in DRAM production needs to be exceptionally tight. The ASML YieldStar 375F introduces a continuous wavelength source and dual wavelength operation to deliver the high measurement accuracy and robustness required as input to the overlay control loop. At the same time, the high throughput required to allow high sampling densities is maintained. The YieldStar 375 was evaluated and adopted for Samsung’s D1y DRAM node.
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