Method for optically detecting height of a specimen and charged particle beam apparatus using the same

• US 20070109557A1
• Filed: 11/02/2006
• Published: 05/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Watanabe, Masahiro, Yoshitake, Yasuhiro, Saito, Keiya
• Granted Patent: US 7,599,076 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 356/602
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/0608 Height gauges
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 2237/20292 Means for position and/or orientation registration
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 2237/216 Automatic focusing methods
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 2237/2482 Optical means
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 2237/2817 Pattern inspection
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/20 Means for supporting or positioning the objects or the material; Means for adjusting diaphragms or lenses associated with the support introducing the objects H01J37/18
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/21 Means for adjusting the focus adjusting the focus while observing the image by photographic or optical means H01J37/22; means for observing the object or the point of impact on the object in tubes for the localised treatment of materials H01J37/3005
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/265 Controlling the tube; circuit arrangements adapted to a particular application not otherwise provided, e.g. bright-field-dark-field illumination
• CPC Class Codes: H01J 37/28 with scanning beams H01J37/268, H01J37/292, H01J37/2955 take precedence

Abstract

The present invention provides an optical height detection method and electron beam apparatus to which the method is applied, in which the focusing accuracy of the CD-SEM apparatus, a SEM inspection apparatus, and others is improved by reducing detection errors and improving detection accuracy so as to improve the accuracy of the optical height detection method, and throughput of a CD-SEM apparatus or others is improved by reducing the processing time of automatic focus control performed based on the detected height according to the optical height detection method. An optical detection optical system projects two-dimensional slit light to a measurement object from diagonally above it, detects the light reflected by the measurement object, converts a detected two-dimensional slit image into an electrical signal by a two-dimensional area sensor, eliminates slit parts having a large detection error from the electrical signal, and detects the height of the measurement object.

Claims

1. A method for optically detecting a height of a specimen surface, comprising steps of:

projecting two-dimensional slit light to an object from a position diagonally above the object;

detecting light of the projected two-dimensional slit light reflected by said object;

converting a two-dimensional slit image of the detected two-dimensional slit light into an electrical signal by a two-dimensional area sensor; and

eliminating slit parts, in which a detection error is large, from the electrical signal of the converted two-dimensional slit image and detecting the height of said object.

2. The method for optically detecting the height of the specimen surface according to claim 1,

wherein, as a process for eliminating the slit parts, in which the detection error is large, from the electrical signal of the converted two-dimensional slit image, symmetric property of a detected waveform is calculated for each slit, slit parts having an asymmetrical waveform are eliminated, and a height detection process of said object is performed by using only slit parts having a symmetric waveform.

3. The method for optically detecting the height of the specimen surface according to claim 1,

wherein, as a process for eliminating the slit parts, in which the detection error is large, from the electrical signal of the converted two-dimensional slit image, a shift distance of the slit image is calculated for each slit, a difference between the calculated shift distance and a shift distance of an adjacent slit is calculated, slit parts in which the difference between the calculated shift distance and the adjacent shift distance is larger than a predetermined value are eliminated, and a height detection process of said object is performed by using only the shift distance of slit parts in which the difference between the calculated shift distance and the adjacent shift distance is smaller than the predetermined value.

4. The method for optically detecting the height of the specimen surface according to claim 1,

wherein, as a process for eliminating the slit parts, in which the detection error is large, from the electrical signal of the converted two-dimensional slit image, a shift distance of the slit image is calculated for each slit, the calculated shift distance is applied to a curved line for each detection line respectively in an x direction and a y direction, slit parts in which the difference between the shift distance and the applied curved line is large are eliminated, and a height detection process of said object is performed by using only slit parts in which the difference is small.

5. The method for optically detecting the height of the specimen surface according to claim 1,

wherein one-dimensional multi-slits are used as the slits of a projection optical system for projecting the two-dimensional slit light to said object, and the two-dimensional slit image is obtained from pixel positions of the two-dimensional area sensor which detects the slit lights by the multi-slits.

6. An apparatus using a charged particle beam, comprising:

a scanning electron microscope system including an electron beam source, a condenser lens which converges an electron beam emitted from said electron beam source, a deflector which deflects the electron beam converged by said condenser lens, an objective lens which converges said electron beam deflected by said deflector onto a measurement object to irradiate the object with the beam, a secondary electron detector which detects secondary electrons generated from said measurement object irradiated with said electron beam, and an image processing unit which measures a pattern formed on said measurement object based on a secondary electron beam image detected by said secondary electron detector;

a focus control system including a focus control unit which performs focus control by controlling an excitation current of said objective lens, and an automatic focus control unit which performs automatic focus control of said objective lens according to said secondary electron beam image; and

a height detection optical system including a projection optical unit which projects two-dimensional slit light to said measurement object from a position diagonally above the object, a detection optical unit which detects light of the two-dimensional slit light reflected by said measurement object, a two-dimensional area sensor which converts a two-dimensional slit image of the two-dimensional slit light detected by said detection optical unit into an electrical signal, and a height detection unit which detects the height of said measurement object by performing a process of eliminating slit parts, in which a detection error is large, from the electrical signal of said converted two-dimensional slit image.

7. The apparatus using the charged particle beam according to claim 6,

wherein said height detection unit of said height detection optical system calculates symmetric property of the detected waveform for each slit from the electrical signal of the converted two-dimensional slit image, eliminates slit parts of an asymmetric waveform from data of the calculated symmetric property, and detects the height of said measurement object by using only slit parts of a symmetric waveform.

8. The apparatus using the charged particle beam according to claim 6,

wherein said height detection unit of said height detection optical system calculates a shift distance of the slit image for each slit from the electrical signal of the converted two-dimensional slit image, calculates a difference between the calculated shift distance and a shift distance of an adjacent slit, eliminates slit parts in which the difference between the calculated shift distance and the shift distance of the adjacent slit is larger than a predetermined value, and detects the height of said measurement object by using the shift distance of slit parts in which the difference between the calculated shift distance and the adjacent shift distance is smaller than the predetermined value.

9. The apparatus using the charged particle beam according to claim 6,

wherein said height detection unit of said height detection optical system calculates a shift distance of the slit image for each slit from the electrical signal of the converted two-dimensional slit image, applies the calculated shift distance to a curved line for each detection line respectively in an x direction and a y direction, eliminates slit parts in which the difference between the shift distance and the curved line applied for the detection line is large, and detects the height of said measurement object by using only slit parts in which the difference is small.