| US 7,462,814 B2 | ||
| Methods and systems for lithography process control | ||
| Suresh Lakkapragada, Sunnyvale, Calif. (US); Kyle A. Brown, San Diego, Calif. (US); Matt Hankinson, San Jose, Calif. (US); and Ady Levy, Sunnyvale, Calif. (US) | ||
| Assigned to KLA-Tencor Technologies Corp., Milpitas, Calif. (US) | ||
| Filed on Feb. 01, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/345,145. | ||
| Application 11/345145 is a continuation of application No. 10/401509, filed on Mar. 27, 2003. | ||
| Application 10/401509 is a continuation of application No. 09/849622, filed on May 04, 2001, granted, now 6,689,519. | ||
| Claims priority of provisional application 60/202372, filed on May 04, 2000. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2006/0138366 A1, Jun. 29, 2006 | ||
| This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer. | ||
| Int. Cl. G06M 7/00 (2006.01); H01J 40/14 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 250—221 [250/559.3; 250/559.33; 250/559.4; 250/548; 250/559.44; 356/400; 356/401; 356/237.2; 356/237.5; 356/947; 382/144; 382/145; 382/151; 382/153; 414/935] | 21 Claims |
| 1. A wafer measurement system for use within a wafer process tool, comprising:
a wafer handler associated with the wafer process tool for feeding wafers between a cassette and any one or more of a plurality
of stations of the wafer process tool;
a wafer measurement station forming one of the stations of the wafer process tool, the measurement station for receiving a
wafer from the wafer handler, the measurement station comprising an optical measurement system forming a scatterometry instrument
that is moveable to specified locations over a wafer in the wafer measurement station to direct a light beam as a spot onto
patterned features of the wafer and to obtain characteristic optical signatures for the patterned features; and
a data processor operable for receiving and analyzing the characteristic signatures to analyze the wafer after processing
in any of the plurality of the stations of the wafer process tool, the data processor being further operable to alter wafer
processing parameters of at least one of the plurality of the stations of the wafer process tool to be used for processing
subsequent wafers based upon the characteristic signatures such that a first portion of one of the subsequent wafers is processed
with a first set of process conditions during a step of a process performed by the wafer process tool and such that a second
portion of the one of the subsequent wafers is processed with a second set of process conditions during the step, wherein
the first set is different than the second set.
|