System and method for haze control in semiconductor processes
View Patent ↗A method for haze control on a semiconductor reticle, the method including performing a reticle inspection of a semiconductor reticle to detect haze formation on a periodic basis, performing a wafer inspection to detect haze defects, forecasting haze formation, and cleaning the semiconductor reticle. Also included is a haze forecasting method for haze control on a semiconductor reticle, including scanning a plurality of semiconductor wafers, identifying repeating defects in the semiconductor wafers, storing the repeating defects in a database as known repeating defects, and identifying an additional repeating defect that is not a known repeating defect, the additional repeating defect caused by semiconductor reticle haze.
1. A haze forecasting method for haze control on a semiconductor reticle, comprising:
scanning a plurality of semiconductor wafers;
identifying repeating defects in the semiconductor wafers;
storing the repeating defects in a database as known repeating defects; and
using the repeating defects stored in the database to identify subsequent repeating defects as either a known repeating defect or a new repeating defect,
wherein non-repeating defects in the semiconductor wafers are not stored in the database.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spatial coordinates of each repeating defect are stored.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the repeating defects in the semiconductor wafers are identified by applying a repeater algorithm.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein known repeating defects and new repeating defects are differentiated from one another by the presence of a flag.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein storing the repeating defects in a database as known repeating defects comprises:
storing an image of each known repeating defect; and
cataloguing each known repeating defect.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein non-repeating defects are identified as false defects.
7. A method of reticle repeater filtering, comprising:
taking a raw scan of a semiconductor wafer;
applying a repeater algorithm to the raw scan to identify one or more repeating defects;
classifying the identified one or more repeating defects as known repeating defects;
storing the known repeating defects in a database; and
using the database to classify subsequently identified repeating defects as either a known repeating defect or a new repeating defect,
wherein non-repeating defects in the semiconductor wafer are not stored in the database.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein storing the known repeating defects in a database comprises:
storing an image of each known repeating defect; and
cataloguing each known repeater.
9. The method of claim 7 further comprising:
storing a spatial coordinate in relation to a shot grid for each known repeating defect.
10. The method of claim 7 , wherein new repeating defects are differentiated from known repeating defects on the raw scan.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein new repeating defects are differentiated from known repeating defects on the raw scan by a flag.
12. The method of claim 7 , wherein non-repeating defects are identified as false defects.
13. A method of filtering repeating reticle defects:
identifying one or more repeating defects in a raw scan of a semiconductor wafer;
storing the one or more identified repeating defects as known repeating defects; and
using the identified known repeating defects to classify a subsequently identified repeating defect as a known repeating defect or a new repeating defect,
wherein non-repeating defects in the semiconductor wafer are not stored.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the one or more repeating defects in the raw scan are identified by applying a repeater algorithm to the raw scan.
15. The method of claim 13 , wherein storing the one or more identified repeating defects as known repeating defects comprises:
storing an image of each known repeating defect in a database; and
cataloguing each known repeater in the database.
16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:
storing a spatial coordinate in relation to a shot grid for each known repeating defect.
17. The method of claim 13 , wherein new repeating defects are differentiated from known repeating defects on the raw scan.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein new repeating defects are differentiated from known repeating defects on the raw scan by a flag.
19. The method of claim 13 , wherein non-repeating defects are identified as false defects.