Method and system for improving integrated circuit manufacturing yield
First Claim
1. A method to improve integrated circuit manufacturing yield, the method comprising:
- collecting surface height information for a wafer concurrent with conducting a lithographic scan process;
identifying wafers having a surface height metric that is greater than a selected threshold; and
reworking the identified wafers.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A lithographic scanner collects surface height information concurrently with conducting a lithographic scan process. A defect identification module identifies wafers having a surface height metric greater than a determined threshold. The identified wafers may be separated for rework to correct the surface defects such as hotspots and improve manufacturing yield without requiring additional equipment. In one embodiment, the surface height metric is a maximum variation from a moving average surface height. In one embodiment, yield data is correlated with surface height information to determine a threshold value corresponding to defective circuit die.
12 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method to improve integrated circuit manufacturing yield, the method comprising:
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collecting surface height information for a wafer concurrent with conducting a lithographic scan process;
identifying wafers having a surface height metric that is greater than a selected threshold; and
reworking the identified wafers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system to improve integrated circuit manufacturing yield, the system comprising:
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a lithographic scanner configured to collect surface height information for a wafer concurrent with conducting a lithographic scan process;
a defect identification module configured to automatically identify wafers having a surface height metric that is greater than a selected threshold; and
at least one tool configured to rework the identified wafers.
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- 9. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one tool comprises a tool for removing at least one interconnection layer.
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14. A system to improve integrated circuit manufacturing yield, the system comprising:
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means for collecting surface height information for a wafer while concurrently conducting a lithographic scan process;
means for identifying wafers having a surface height metric that is greater than a selected threshold; and
means for reworking the identified wafers. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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18. A machine readable medium comprising operations to improve integrated circuit manufacturing yield, the operations comprising:
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collecting surface height information for a wafer while concurrently conducting a lithographic scan process;
identifying wafers having a surface height metric that is greater than a selected threshold; and
reworking the identified wafers. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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Specification