Process and apparatus for detecting aberrations in production process operations
First Claim
1. A method of obtaining process operation information from a plasma reactor, said reactor being capable of effecting a reaction with at least a particular material from a slice, which slice includes said particular material and on which semiconductor components are being at least partially formed, there being a sensor associated with said reactor and capable of producing an electrical signal having a varying amplitude proportional to the varying intensity of a reaction of said particular material in said reactor as said reaction progresses with time, a start and an end of said reaction each being indicated by said electrical signal passing through a threshold amplitude and varying intensities of said reaction between said start and end being indicated by varying amplitudes of said electrical signal different from said threshold amplitude, said method comprising:
- A. selecting a series of reference varying amplitudes to define a reference continuously variable signal curve indicative of observed intensities of a desired reaction of said particular material in said plasma reactor from at least said start to at least said end;
B. conducting an actual reaction of said particular material in said plasma reactor from at least said start to at least said end;
C. acquiring actual varying amplitudes of said electrical signal, which forms an actual continuously variable signal curve, between said start and end during said conducting said reaction;
D. comparing said reference varying amplitudes and said actual varying amplitudes; and
E. generating an indicator signal upon said reference and actual amplitudes differing from one another by a particular amount to indicate an aberration in said actual reaction compared to said desired reaction.
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Abstract
An apparatus and process for detecting aberrations in production process operations is provided. In one embodiment, operations of a plasma etch reactor (10) are monitored to detect aberrations in etching operations. A reference end-point trace (EPT) is defined (50), regions are defined in the reference EPT (52) and characteristics and tolerances for each region are defined (54). The etcher is run (56) and an actual EPT is obtained from the running of the etcher. The actual EPT is analyzed (58) by comparing characteristics of the regions of the actual EPT with characteristics of corresponding regions of the reference EPT. If the characteristics of the actual EPT exceed those of the reference EPT by predefined tolerances (62) a signal is generated (68). The system also checks for aberrations which are manifested by predefined EPT characteristics and signals when those are detected.
143 Citations
41 Claims
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1. A method of obtaining process operation information from a plasma reactor, said reactor being capable of effecting a reaction with at least a particular material from a slice, which slice includes said particular material and on which semiconductor components are being at least partially formed, there being a sensor associated with said reactor and capable of producing an electrical signal having a varying amplitude proportional to the varying intensity of a reaction of said particular material in said reactor as said reaction progresses with time, a start and an end of said reaction each being indicated by said electrical signal passing through a threshold amplitude and varying intensities of said reaction between said start and end being indicated by varying amplitudes of said electrical signal different from said threshold amplitude, said method comprising:
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A. selecting a series of reference varying amplitudes to define a reference continuously variable signal curve indicative of observed intensities of a desired reaction of said particular material in said plasma reactor from at least said start to at least said end; B. conducting an actual reaction of said particular material in said plasma reactor from at least said start to at least said end; C. acquiring actual varying amplitudes of said electrical signal, which forms an actual continuously variable signal curve, between said start and end during said conducting said reaction; D. comparing said reference varying amplitudes and said actual varying amplitudes; and E. generating an indicator signal upon said reference and actual amplitudes differing from one another by a particular amount to indicate an aberration in said actual reaction compared to said desired reaction. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of monitoring operations in process equipment which carries out a predetermined etched plasma process, which process is first monitored by detector apparatus that provides an actual continuously variable signal curve corresponding to the progress of the process, and wherein the reference continuously variable signal curve can be defined, which reference continuously variable signal curve corresponds to a predefined acceptable operation of the predetermined process, the method comprising:
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defining a reference continuously variable signal curve for the predetermined process; defining a plurality of regions in said reference continuously variable signal curve; defining characteristics for at least one region of said reference continuously variable signal curve; conducting said predetermined process; acquiring from the detector apparatus an actual continuously variable signal curve corresponding to the progress of the process conducted from a start to and end of the process; dividing the actual continuously variable signal curve acquired into regions; comparing characteristics of at least one of the regions of the actual continuously variable signal curve with the characteristics of a corresponding region in the reference continuously variable signal curve; and generating an indicator signal if a characteristic of one of the regions of the actual continuously variable signal curve exceeds by a predetermined limit a corresponding characteristic of a region of the reference continuously variable signal curve. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. The method of detecting aberrations in semiconductor manufacturing operations, comprising:
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defining a reference trace for a predetermined etch process; defining regions in the reference trace; defining characteristics for at least one region of the reference trace; conducting the predetermined etch process on a semiconductor device; acquiring an actual trace for the etch of the semiconductor device from a start to an end of the operation; dividing the actual trace into regions corresponding to the predefined regions of the reference trace; comparing characteristics of at least one region of the actual trace with corresponding characteristics of the corresponding region of the reference trace; and generating an indicator signal if characteristics of the at least one region of the actual trace vary beyond predefined limits corresponding characteristics of the corresponding region of the reference trace. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method of detecting aberrations in a plasma process of semiconductor manufacturing operations, comprising:
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defining a reference trace for said plasma process; conducting the plasma process on a semiconductor device; acquiring an actual trace for the process of the semiconductor device from a start to and end; dividing the reference trace into predefined regions; dividing the actual trace into regions corresponding to the predefined regions of the reference trace; comparing characteristics of regions of the actual trace with corresponding characteristics of corresponding regions of the reference trace; and generating an indicator signal if characteristics of the regions of the actual trace vary beyond predefined limits from corresponding characteristics of corresponding regions of the reference trace. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
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26. A method of obtaining process operation information form a plasma reactor, said reactor being capable of effecting a reaction with at least a particular material from a slice, which slice includes said particular material and on which semiconductor components are being at lease partially formed, there being a sensor associated with said reactor and capable of producing an electrical signal having a varying amplitude proportional to the varying intensities of a reaction of said particular material in said reactor as said reaction progresses with time, a start and an end of said reaction each being indicated by said electrical signal of a threshold amplitude and varying intensities of said reaction between said start and end being indicated by varying amplitudes of said electrical signal different from said threshold amplitude, said method comprising:
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A. selecting a series of reference varying amplitudes to define a reference continuously variable signal curve indicative of intensities of at least a certain reaction specie of a desired reaction of said particular material in said plasma reactor from at least said start to at least said end; B. conducting an actual reaction of said particular material to produce time varying quantities of said certain reaction specie in said plasma reactor from the start of said reaction through the end of said reaction; C. acquiring actual varying amplitudes of said electrical signal to form an actual continuously variable signal curve indicating the time varying quantities of said certain reaction specie between said start and end during said conducting said reaction; D. dividing each of said reference and actual curves into at least one region between said start and end; E. defining at least the same one characteristic for each of said at least one regions of each of said reference and actual curves; F. comparing said at least one same characteristic of said at least one regions of said reference and actual curves with one another; and G. generating an indicator signal indicating the results of the comparison of said at least one same characteristic of said at least one regions of said reference and actual curves with one another.
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27. A method of obtaining process information during production of semiconductor devices by a plasma reaction comprising:
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A. conducting said reaction from at least a start to at least an end; B. acquiring actual continuous data from said reaction that corresponds to the observed progress of said reaction from said start to said end; and C. comparing said actual continuous data to reference continuous data to obtain said information. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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Specification