Intra-tool defect offset system

• US 6,238,940 B1
• Filed: 05/03/1999
• Issued: 05/29/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
• Inventors: Steffan, Paul J., Yu, Allen S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nelms, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nhu, David
• Application Number:
  US09/304,420
• Time in Patent Office: 757 Days
• Field of Search: 438/12, 438/14, 438/15, 438/18, 438/16, 438/5, 438/17
• US Class Current: 438/14
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 22/20 Sequence of activities consisting of a plurality of measurements, corrections, marking or sorting steps

Abstract

A method of analyzing defects in a semiconductor manufacturing process by removing position offset of a selected scanning tool from the defect location information and adding position offset of a selected review analysis tool. The resulting defect location information from a scanner is based upon a true xy coordinate system and the analysis review tool reviews defect locations based upon its xy coordinate system.

Claims

1. A method of analyzing defects in a semiconductor manufacturing process, the method comprising the steps of:

sending a production lot of wafers through a manufacturing process;

scanning a selected wafer from the production lot of wafers for defects in a selected scanning tool;

sending location information for defects caught during the step of scanning to a defect management system;

combining the location information for defects caught during the step of scanning with offset information for the selected scanning tool to obtain accurate scanning tool defect location information;

selecting a review analysis tool to review the accurate scanning tool defect location information;

combining the accurate scanning tool defect location information with offset information for the selected review analysis tool to obtain accurate review tool defect location information for the selected review analysis tool; and

analyzing in the selected review analysis tool the defects caught during the step of scanning using the accurate review tool defect location information for the selected review analysis tool.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of storing offset information for the selected scanning tool in an offset database and storing offset information for the selected review analysis tool in the offset database.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the steps of generating the offset information for the selected scanning tool and the selected review analysis tool at a workstation connected to the offset database.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the steps of generating the offset information for the selected scanning tool and the selected review analysis tool includes including information concerning stage movement anomalies, alignment sites, skew, runout, or other systematic differences for the selected scanning tool and the selected analysis review tool.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the step of combining the location information for defects caught during the step of scanning with offset information for the selected scanning tool comprises removing the offset information from the location information for defects wherein the accurate scanning tool defect location information uses an xy coordinate system based on a true xy coordinate system.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of combining the accurate scanning tool defect location information with offset information for the selected review analysis tool comprises adding the offset information for the selected review analysis tool wherein the accurate review tool defect location information uses an xy coordinate system based on the selected review tool xy coordinate system.