Method and apparatus for evaluating insulating film

• US 6,720,790 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2003
• Issued: 04/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Hashimoto, Yukiko, Watakabe, Akio, Eriguchi, Koji
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuneo, Kamand
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tung X.
• Application Number:
  US10/385,848
• Publication Number:
  US 20030169065A1
• Time in Patent Office: 398 Days
• Field of Search: 324/765, 324/158.1, 324/756, 324/71.1, 324/71.5, 439/482, 439/843, 438/14, 438/15, 438/18
• US Class Current: 324/762.01
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 22/34 Circuits for electrically characterising or monitoring manufacturing processes, e. g. whole test die, wafers filled with test structures, on-board-devices incorporated on each die, process control monitors or pad structures thereof, devices in scribe line switching, multiplexing, gating devices G01R19/25; process control with lithography, e.g. dose control, G03F7/20; structures for alignment control by optical means G03F7/70633
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/0002 Not covered by any one of groups H01L24/00, H01L24/00 and H01L2224/00

Abstract

There is provided a method for evaluating an insulating film entirely provided on a conductor layer for the characteristics or dimensions thereof. A measuring member having conductor bumps arranged thereon to be connected to wires is disposed above the insulating film on the conductor layer. Then, the conductor bumps are pressed against the insulating film with a given pressing force. By applying a voltage (electric stress) between the conductor bumps and the conductor layer, the characteristics including I-V characteristic, gate leakage current, and TDDB or the dimensions including thickness are evaluated.

Claims

1. method for evaluating an insulating film provided on a conductor layer in a semiconductor substrate for characteristics or dimensions thereof, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) disposing a measuring member having conductor bump and wire connected to the conductor bump above the substrate, while placing the conductor bump and the insulating film in opposing relation;

(b) bringing the conductor bumps into contact with the insulating film and providing a MIS structure in which the gate insulating film is sandwiched between the conductor bump and the semiconductor substrate; and

(c) applying an electric stress between the conductor bumps and the conductor layer and thereby evaluating the insulating film for the characteristics or dimensions thereof.

2. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 1, wherein the step (c) includes evaluating the insulating film for a leakage characteristic thereof.

3. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 1, wherein the step (c) includes evaluating the insulating film for reliability thereof under the electric stress.

4. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 1, wherein the step (c) includes evaluating the insulating film for a current-voltage characteristic thereof.

5. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 1, wherein the step (c) includes evaluating the insulating film for a dielectric constant thereof.

6. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 5, wherein the step (c) includes evaluating the insulating film for a thickness thereof.

7. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 1, wherein the step (b) includes reducing a pressure in a space between the substrate and the measuring member and thereby relatively pressing the conductor bumps and the insulating film against each other.

8. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 1, wherein the step (b) includes controlling the pressing force with which the conductor bumps and the insulating film are pressed against each other such that a contact area between each of the conductor bumps and the insulating film falls within a specified range.

9. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 8, wherein the pressing force is controlled with a relative distance between the measuring member and the substrate.

10. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 1, wherein the step (c) includes evaluating the insulating film, while heating at least one of the substrate and the measuring member.

11. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 1, further comprising, prior to the step (a), the step of:

(d) calibrating the pressing force to keep a contact area between each of the conductor bumps and the insulating film within a specified range.

12. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 11, wherein the pressing force is calibrated by using a second substrate having a second insulating film on a second conductor layer and bringing the conductor bumps of the measuring member into contact with the second insulating film.

13. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 11, wherein the pressing force is calibrated by evaluating the second insulating film for characteristics thereof.

14. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 13, wherein the second insulating film is evaluated by detecting a leakage current in the second insulating film.

15. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 1, further comprising, after the step (c), the step of:

(e) bringing the conductor bumps and the insulating film into a non-contact state and relatively moving the measuring member and the substrate,

the procedure from the step (e) to the step (d) being repeated a plurality of times.

16. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 1, further comprising, prior to the step (a), the step of:

(f) preparing a database individually storing respective sizes of the conductor bumps, wherein

the step (c) includes retrieving, from the database, data on the respective sizes of the conductor bumps and evaluating the insulating film for the characteristics or dimensions thereof.

17. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 1, further comprising, prior to the step (a), the step of:

(g) predicting deformation of each of the conductor bumps in the step (b) based on data on respective sizes of the conductor bumps and preparing a database individually storing a contact area between each of the conductor bumps and the insulating film resulting from the deformation of each of the conductor bumps, wherein

the step (c) includes retrieving, from the database, data on the contact area between each of the conductor bumps and the insulating film and evaluating the insulating film for the characteristics or dimensions thereof based on the contact area of each of the conductor bumps.

18. The method for evaluating an insulating film of claim 17, wherein the step (g) includes applying a pressing force between the measuring member and the substrate such that at least some of the plurality of conductor bumps are plastically deformed, measuring an area of an upper surface of each of the conductor bumps that have been plastically deformed after removing the pressing force, and predicting the deformation the conductor bumps in the step (b) based on the area.