Lithography method and system with correction of overlay offset errors caused by wafer processing

1. A method of controlling lithographic overlay offsets in the manufacture of semiconductor devices from wafers, comprising the steps of:

utilizing a lithographic tool to perform a lithographic process on a wafer layer, resulting in the formation of a lithographic pattern;

determining alignment offset corrections which are due to factors involved in the lithographic process;

feeding back the corrections to result in positional control of the lithographic tool;

post processing the wafer after the lithographic pattern is formed to enable fabrication of a semiconductor device;

predicting overlay offset corrections based on one or more factors involved in said post processing of the wafer, and

utilizing said predicted overlay offset corrections to positionally control the lithographic tool.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said factors involved in the post processing of the wafer are pre-process conditions.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein determining alignment offset corrections comprises measuring alignment offset data between successive wafer layers and modeling said data to result in alignment offset information.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein predicting overlay offset corrections comprises measuring overlay offset data between successive wafer levels due to post processing of the wafer and modeling the data to result in post processing offset information.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the alignment offset information and the post processing offset information are compared against norms to determine whether the wafer needs to be re-processed or the processing needs to be shut down.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein offset corrections are calibrated out of the overlay measurement to allow zero offset overlay targets to be used.

7. A method of controlling lithographic overlay offsets in the manufacture of semiconductor devices from wafers, comprising the steps of:

utilizing a lithographic tool on a wafer layer, resulting in the formation of a lithographic pattern;

post processing the wafer after the lithographic pattern is formed to enable fabrication of a semiconductor device;

measuring overlay offsets between successive levels of the wafer and from such measurements determining overlay offset corrections;

utilizing the overlay offset corrections to positionally correct the lithographic tool; and

calibrating the overlay offset corrections out of the overlay measurements to allow zero offset targets to be used.

8. A method of controlling lithographic overlay offsets in the manufacture of semiconductor devices from wafers, comprising the steps of:

forming a lithographic pattern on a wafer layer with a lithographic tool; post processing the wafer after the pattern is formed to enable fabrication of a semiconductor device;

predicting overlay offset corrections based on one or more pre-process conditions involved in said post processing of the wafer; and

utilizing said predicted overlay offset corrections to positionally control the lithographic tool:

wherein predicting said overlay offset corrections comprises;

measuring the overlay offsets between successive levels of a number of lots of said wafers,

correlating the measured offsets with respective pre-process conditions to create a model,

determining pre-process conditions for a current lot, and utilizing said pre-process conditions for a current lot along with information in said model to predict said overlay offset corrections.

9. A system for controlling lithographic overlay offsets in the manufacture of semiconductor devices from wafers, comprising:

means for forming a lithographic pattern on a wafer layer with a lithographic tool;

means for post processing the wafer after the pattern is formed to enable fabrication of a semiconductor device;

means for predicting overlay offset corrections based on one or more pre-process conditions involved in said post processing of the wafer; and

means for utilizing said predicted overlay offset corrections to positionally control the lithographic tool;

wherein said means for predicting said overlay offset corrections comprises;

means for measuring the overlay offsets between successive levels of a number of lots of said wafers,

means for correlating the measured offsets with respective pre-process conditions to create a model.

means for determining pre-process conditions for a current lot, and means for utilizing said pre-process conditions for a current lot along with information in said model to predict said overlay offset corrections.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the pre-process conditions include state of top etch, specific types of film being processed, state of chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) tool, and state of a sputtering tool which is used.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising means for calibrating the predicted overlay offset corrections out of the overlay measurement to allow zero offset overlay targets to be used.

12. A storage medium containing a set of instructions which can be implemented by a computer for performing method steps for controlling lithographic overlay offsets in the manufacture of semiconductor devices from wafers, said method steps comprising:

forming a lithographic pattern on a wafer layer with a lithographic tool;

post processing the wafer after the pattern is formed to enable fabrication of a semiconductor device;

predicting overlay offset corrections based on one or more pre-process conditions involved in said post processing of the wafer; and

utilizing said predicted overlay offset corrections to positionally control the lithographic tool;

wherein predicting said overlay offset corrections comprises;

measuring the overlay offsets between successive levels of a number of lots of said wafers,

correlating the measured offsets with respective pre-process conditions to create a model,

determining pre-process conditions for a current lot, and

utilizing said pre-process conditions for a current lot along with information in said model to predict said overlay offset corrections.

13. The storage medium of claim 12 wherein the pre-process conditions include state of top etch, specific types of film being processed, state of chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) tool, and state of a sputtering tool which is used.

14. The storage medium of claim 13 wherein said method steps further comprise calibrating the predicted overlay offset corrections out of the overlay measurement to allow zero offset overlay targets to be employed.

15. A method of controlling lithographic overlay offsets in the manufacture of semiconductor devices from wafers, comprising the steps of:

forming a lithographic pattern on a wafer layer with a lithographic tool;

post processing the wafer after the pattern is formed to enable fabrication of a semiconductor device;

predicting overlay offset corrections based on one or more pre-process conditions including pad age of a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) tool, specific type of film processed, target age of a sputtering tool, and state of top etch, said predicting including measuring the overlay offsets between successive levels of a number of lots of said wafers, correlating the measured offsets with respective pre-process conditions to create a model, determining pre-process conditions for a current lot, and utilizing said pre-process conditions for a current lot and the information in said model to predict said overlay offset corrections;

utilizing said predicted overlay offset corrections to positionally control the lithographic tool; and

calibrating the predicted overlay offset corrections out of the overlay measurement to allow zero offset targets to be used.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the pre-process conditions include at least one of state of top etch, specific types of film being processed, state of chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) tool, and state of a sputtering tool which is used.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising calibrating the predicted overlay offset corrections out of the overlay measurement to allow zero offset overlay targets to be used.