System and method for defining care areas in repeating structures of design data

• US 10,339,262 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2016
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: KLA-Tencor Corporation
• Original Assignee: KLA-Tencor Corporation
• Inventors: Huang, Junqing, Konecky, Soren, Lee, Hucheng, Wu, Kenong, Gao, Lisheng
• Primary Examiner(s): Garbowski, Leigh M
• Application Number:
  US15/351,813
• Publication Number:
  US 20170286589A1
• Time in Patent Office: 959 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/9501 Semiconductor wafers manufacturing processes per se of semiconductor devices implementing a measuring step H01L22/10
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/7065 Defects, e.g. optical inspection of patterned layer for defects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/398 Design verification or optimisation, e.g. using design rule check [DRC], layout versus schematics [LVS] or finite element methods [FEM] optical proximity correction [OPC] design processes G03F1/36

Abstract

A method includes identifying a first set of a first care area with a first sensitivity threshold, the first care area associated with a first design of interest within a block of repeating cells in design data; identifying an additional set of an additional care area with an additional sensitivity threshold, the additional care area associated with an additional design of interest within the block of repeating cells in design data; identifying one or more defects within the first set of the first care areas in one or more images of a selected region of a sample based on the first sensitivity threshold; and identifying one or more defects within the additional set of the additional care areas in the one or more images of the selected region of the sample based on the additional sensitivity threshold.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an inspection tool, wherein the inspection tool includes a detector configured to acquire one or more images of a selected region of a sample;

a user interface, wherein the user interface includes a display and a user input device; and

a controller including one or more processors configured to execute a set of program instructions stored in memory, wherein the program instructions are configured to cause the one or more processors to;

receive design data, wherein the design data includes a block of repeating cells;

present, on the user interface, a particular cell of the block of repeating cells;

define a first care area associated with a first design of interest in the particular cell from a first input received via the user interface, wherein the first care area has a first sensitivity threshold;

define an additional care area associated with an additional design of interest in the particular cell from an additional input received via the user interface, wherein the additional care area has an additional sensitivity threshold, wherein the first care area is more sensitive than the additional care area;

identify a set of first care areas within the block of repeating cells by performing a search function to identify additional occurrences of the first design of interest within the block of repeating cells;

identify a set of additional care areas within the block of repeating cells by performing a search function to identify additional occurrences of the additional design of interest within the block of repeating cells;

configure the inspection tool based on the set of first care areas and the set of additional care areas to reduce inspection time when acquiring the one or more images of the selected region of the sample;

receive the one or more images of the selected region of the sample from the inspection tool;

identify one or more defects within the first set of care areas in the one or more images of the selected region of the sample based on the first sensitivity threshold; and

identify one or more defects within the additional set of care areas in the one or more images of the selected region of the sample based on the additional sensitivity threshold.

2. The system in claim 1, wherein at least one of the first care area and the additional care area are defined based on a selection received by the controller via the user interface.

3. The system in claim 1, wherein the search function to identify additional occurrences of the first design of interest associated within the block of repeating cells includes a pixel-to-design alignment process.

4. The system in claim 1, wherein the search function to identify additional occurrences of the additional design of interest within the block of repeating cells includes a pixel-to-design alignment process.

5. The system in claim 1, wherein at least one of the identified set of first care areas within the block of repeating cells and the identified set of additional care areas within the block of repeating cells are utilized to perform run-time context map rendering.

6. The system in claim 1, wherein the first sensitivity threshold is determined by a plurality of comparison markers within the first care area, wherein a lower number of the plurality of comparison markers within the first care area corresponds to a higher sensitivity threshold for the first care area.

7. The system in claim 1, wherein the additional sensitivity threshold is determined by a plurality of comparison markers within the additional care area, wherein a lower number of the plurality of comparison markers within the additional care area corresponds to a higher sensitivity threshold for the additional care area.

8. The system in claim 1, wherein the first sensitivity threshold is higher than the additional sensitivity threshold.

9. The system in claim 1, wherein the inspection tool comprises at least one of a darkfield inspection tool or a brightfield inspection tool.

10. The system in claim 1, wherein the inspection system includes an illumination source.

11. The system in claim 10, wherein the illumination source comprises:

at least one of a narrowband source or a broadband source.

12. The system in claim 1, wherein the inspection tool comprises:

a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) tool.

13. A system, comprising:

a user interface, wherein the user interface includes a display and a user input device; and

a controller including one or more processors configured to execute a set of program instructions stored in memory, wherein the program instructions are configured to cause the one or more processors to;

receive design data, wherein the design data includes a block of repeating cells;

present, on the user interface, a particular cell of the block of repeating cells;

define a first care area associated with a first design of interest in the particular cell from a first input received via the user interface, wherein the first care area has a first sensitivity threshold;

define an additional care area associated with an additional design of interest in the particular cell from an additional input received via the user interface, wherein the additional care area has an additional sensitivity threshold, wherein the first care area is more sensitive than the additional care area;

identify a set of first care areas within the block of repeating cells by performing a search function to identify additional occurrences of the first design of interest within the block of repeating cells;

identify a set of additional care areas within the block of repeating cells by performing a search function to identify additional occurrences of the additional design of interest within the block of repeating cells; and

configure an inspection tool based on the set of first care areas and the set of additional care areas to reduce inspection time when acquiring the one or more images of the selected region of the sample, wherein the inspection tool includes a detector configured to acquire the one or more images of the selected region of the sample.

14. A system, comprising:

an inspection tool, wherein the inspection tool includes a detector configured to acquire one or more images of a selected region of a sample; and

a controller including one or more processors configured to execute a set of program instructions stored in memory, wherein the program instructions are configured to cause the one or more processors to;

identify a set of first care areas, wherein a first care area is defined from a first input received via a user interface, wherein the first care area is associated with a first design of interest within a block of repeating cells in design data, wherein the first care area has a first sensitivity threshold, wherein the user interface includes a display and a user input device;

identify a set of additional care areas, wherein an additional care area is defined from an additional input received via the user interface, wherein the additional care area is associated with an additional design of interest within the block of repeating cells in design data, wherein the additional care area has an additional sensitivity threshold, wherein the first care area is more sensitive than the additional care area;

configure the inspection tool based on the set of first care areas and the set of additional care areas to reduce inspection time when acquiring the one or more images of the selected region of the sample;

receive the one or more images of the selected region of the sample from the inspection tool;

identify one or more defects within the first set of the first care areas in the one or more images of the selected region of the sample based on the first sensitivity threshold; and

identify one or more defects within the additional set of the additional care areas in the one or more images of the selected region of the sample based on the additional sensitivity threshold.

15. A method comprising:

receiving design data, wherein the design data includes a block of repeating cells;

presenting, on a user interface, a particular cell of the block of repeating cells, wherein the user interface includes a display and a user input device;

defining a first care area associated with a first design of interest in the particular cell from a first input received via the user interface, wherein the first care area has a first sensitivity threshold;

defining an additional care area associated with an additional design of interest in the particular cell from an additional input received via the user interface, wherein the additional care area has an additional sensitivity threshold, wherein the first care area is more sensitive than the additional care area;

identifying a set of first care areas within the block of repeating cells by performing a search function to identify additional occurrences of the first design of interest within the block of repeating cells;

identifying a set of additional care areas within the block of repeating cells by performing a search function to identify additional occurrences of the additional design of interest within the block of repeating cells;

configuring an inspection tool based on the set of first care areas and the set of additional care areas to reduce inspection time when acquiring the one or more images of the selected region of the sample, wherein the inspection tool includes a detector configured to acquire the one or more images of the selected region of the sample;

receiving the one or more images of the selected region of the sample from the inspection tool;

identifying one or more defects within the first set of care areas in the one or more images of the selected region of the sample based on the first sensitivity threshold; and

identifying one or more defects within the additional set of care areas in the one or more images of the selected region of the sample based on the additional sensitivity threshold.

16. The method in claim 15, wherein the first sensitivity threshold is determined by a plurality of comparison markers within the first care area, wherein a lower number of comparison markers within the first care area corresponds to a higher sensitivity threshold for the first care area.

17. The method in claim 15, wherein the additional sensitivity threshold is determined by a plurality of comparison markers within the additional care area, wherein a lower number of the plurality of comparison markers within the additional care area corresponds to a higher sensitivity threshold for the additional care area.

18. The method in claim 15, wherein the first sensitivity threshold is higher than the additional sensitivity threshold.

19. A method comprising:

receiving design data, wherein the design data includes a block of repeating cells;

presenting, on a user interface, a particular cell of the block of repeating cells, wherein the user interface includes a display and a user input device;

defining a first care area associated with a first design of interest in the particular cell from a first input received via the user interface, wherein the first care area has a first sensitivity threshold;

defining an additional care area associated with an additional design of interest in the particular cell from an additional input received via the user interface, wherein the additional care area has an additional sensitivity threshold, wherein the first care area is more sensitive than the additional care area;

identifying a set of first care areas within the block of repeating cells by performing a search function to identify additional occurrences of the first design of interest within the block of repeating cells;

identifying a set of additional care areas within the block of repeating cells by performing a search function to identify additional occurrences of the additional design of interest within the block of repeating cells; and

configuring an inspection tool based on the set of first care areas and the set of additional care areas to reduce inspection time when acquiring the one or more images of the selected region of the sample, wherein the inspection tool includes a detector configured to the acquire one or more images of the selected region of the sample.

20. A method comprising:

identifying a set of first care areas, wherein a first care area is defined from a first input received via a user interface, wherein the first care area is associated with a first design of interest within a block of repeating cells in design data, wherein the first care area has a first sensitivity threshold, wherein the user interface includes a display and a user input device;

identifying a set of additional care areas, wherein an additional care area is defined from an additional input received via the user interface, wherein the additional care area is associated with an additional design of interest within the block of repeating cells in design data, wherein the additional care area has an additional sensitivity threshold, wherein the first care area is more sensitive than the additional care area;

configuring an inspection tool based on the set of first care areas and the set of additional care areas to reduce inspection time when acquiring the one or more images of the selected region of the sample, wherein the inspection tool includes a detector configured to acquire the one or more images of the selected region of the sample;

receiving the one or more images of the selected region of the sample from an inspection tool;

identifying one or more defects within the first set of the first care areas in the one or more images of the selected region of the sample based on the first sensitivity threshold; and

identifying one or more defects within the additional set of the additional care areas in the one or more images of the selected region of the sample based on the additional sensitivity threshold.