Methods and apparatus for obtaining diagnostic information relating to an industrial process

• US 10,642,162 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2019
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ASML Netherlands BV (ASML Holding NV)
• Original Assignee: ASML Netherlands BV (ASML Holding NV)
• Inventors: Ypma, Alexander, Menger, Jasper, Deckers, David, Han, David, Koopman, Adrianus Cornelis Matheus, Lyulina, Irina, Middlebrooks, Scott Anderson, Van Haren, Richard Johannes Franciscus, Wildenberg, Jochem Sebastiaan
• Primary Examiner(s): Iacoletti, Michelle M
• Application Number:
  US16/351,873
• Publication Number:
  US 20190278188A1
• Time in Patent Office: 419 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70508 Data handling in all parts of the microlithographic apparatus, e.g. handling pattern data for addressable masks or data transfer to or from different components within the exposure apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70525 Controlling normal operating mode, e.g. matching different apparatus, remote control or prediction of failure
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70616 Monitoring the printed patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70625 Dimensions, e.g. line width, critical dimension [CD], profile, sidewall angle or edge roughness
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70633 Overlay, i.e. relative alignment between patterns printed by separate exposures in different layers, or in the same layer in multiple exposures or stitching
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70641 Focus
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/706837 Data analysis, e.g. filtering, weighting, flyer removal, fingerprints or root cause analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 9/7092 Signal processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data

Abstract

In a lithographic process, product units such as semiconductor wafers are subjected to lithographic patterning operations and chemical and physical processing operations. Alignment data or other measurements are made at stages during the performance of the process to obtain object data representing positional deviation or other parameters measured at points spatially distributed across each unit. This object data is used to obtain diagnostic information by performing a multivariate analysis to decompose a set of vectors representing the units in the multidimensional space into one or more component vectors. Diagnostic information about the industrial process is extracted using the component vectors. The performance of the industrial process for subsequent product units can be controlled based on the extracted diagnostic information.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining object data for a set of physical product units that have been subjected nominally to a same device manufacturing process;

obtaining context data representing all or part of the processing history of each product unit of the set of product units;

decomposing, by a hardware computer system, the object data into one or more fingerprint components; and

diagnosing, by the hardware computer system, the device manufacturing process based on the context data and the one or more obtained fingerprint components.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the diagnosing comprises correlating the one or more fingerprint components to one or more parameters comprised within the context data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the context data identifies a particular apparatus, or part of an apparatus, involved in processing of a product unit from the set of product units.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the diagnosing is a root cause analysis process.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the root cause analysis process is arranged to extract diagnostic information at least partly by designating each of one or more certain product units from the set of product units as a product unit of interest based on the position of a fingerprint of the respective product unit of the one or more certain product units when projected onto one or more fingerprint components selected from the one or more fingerprint components.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising controlling a lithographic apparatus using a correction based on the extracted diagnostic information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the correction is configured to correct a fingerprint arising from one or more physical and/or chemical operations to which physical product units have been subjected.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the object data for each product unit comprises a residual resulting from one or more parameters measured on the product unit at points spatially distributed across the product unit being subjected to a correction obtainable in the device manufacturing process.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the context data represents one or more selected from:

a type of process step applied to a physical product unit, which one or more individual apparatuses have been used in the performance of a process step applied to a physical product unit, and/or what one or more parameters were applied by one or more individual apparatuses used in the performance of a process step applied to a physical product unit.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the decomposing is based on a multivariate analysis.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the object data comprises one or more selected from:

height map data, alignment data, and/or overlay data and the diagnosing comprises determining a correction based on the context data and the one or more fingerprint components, and further comprising, based on the determined correction, outputting electronic data for configuration or modification of the device manufacturing process or of a measurement process of physical product units subjected to the device manufacturing process.

12. A method comprising:

obtaining object data for a set of physical product units that have been subjected nominally to a same device manufacturing process;

obtaining context data representing all or part of the processing history of each product unit of the set of product units;

decomposing the object data into one or more fingerprint components;

correlating, by a hardware computer system, the context data to the one or more fingerprint components;

determining, by the hardware computer system, a correction based on the correlation between the context data and the one or more fingerprint components; and

based on the determined correction, outputting electronic data for configuration or modification of the device manufacturing process or of a measurement process of physical product units subjected to the device manufacturing process.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the correction is specific for an individual product unit from the set of product units.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the correction is specific for a batch or lot of product units from the set of product units.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the correction comprises configuration or modification of an alignment system of a lithographic apparatus.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the correction comprises an alignment recipe for a lithographic apparatus.

17. A method comprising:

obtaining object data comprising height map data and/or alignment data, for a set of physical product units that have been subjected nominally to a same device manufacturing process;

obtaining overlay data measured for each product unit of the set of product units;

decomposing the object data into one or more fingerprint components;

correlating, by a hardware computer system, the overlay data to the one or more fingerprint components;

determining, by the hardware computer system, a correction based on the correlation between the overlay data and the one or more fingerprint components; and

based on the determined correction, outputting electronic data for configuration or modification of the device manufacturing process or of a measurement process of physical product units subjected to the device manufacturing process.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the object data for each product unit comprises a residual resulting from a height map and/or alignment map measured on the product unit at points spatially distributed across the product unit being subjected to a correction obtainable in the device manufacturing process.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the correction is specific for an individual physical product unit out of the set of physical product units.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the correction is specific for a batch or lot of physical product units out of the set of physical product units.

21. A non-transitory computer program product comprising machine readable instructions therein, that when executed by a computer system, are configured to cause the computer system to at least:

obtain object data comprising height map data and/or alignment data, for a set of physical product units that have been subjected nominally to a same device manufacturing process;

obtain overlay data measured for each product unit of the set of product units;

decompose the object data into one or more fingerprint, components;

correlate the overlay data to the one or more fingerprint components;

determine a correction based on the correlation between the overlay data and the one or more fingerprint components; and

based on the determined correction, output electronic data for configuration or modification of the device manufacturing process or of a measurement process of physical product units subjected to the device manufacturing process.

22. A non-transitory computer program product comprising machine readable instructions therein, that when executed by a computer system, are configured to cause the computer system to at least:

obtain object data for a set of physical product units that have been subjected nominally to a same device manufacturing process;

obtain context data representing all or part of the processing history of each product unit of the set of product units;

decompose the object data into one or more fingerprint components; and

diagnose the device manufacturing process based on the context data and the one or more obtained fingerprint components.

23. A non-transitory computer program product comprising machine readable instructions therein, that when executed by a computer system, are configured to cause the computer system to at least:

obtain object data for a set of physical product units that have been subjected nominally to a same device manufacturing process;

obtain context data representing all or part of the processing history of each product unit of the set of product units;

decompose the object data into one or more fingerprint components;

correlate the context data to the one or more fingerprint components;

determine a correction based on the correlation between the context data and the one or more fingerprint components; and

based on the determined correction, output electronic data for configuration or modification of the device manufacturing process or of a measurement process of physical product units subjected to the device manufacturing process.