Thin films measurement method and system
View Patent ↗A method and system are presented for use in controlling the processing of a structure. First measured data is provided being indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness (d 2 ) of at least one layer (L 2 ) of the structure W in at least selected sites of the structure prior to the processing of the structure, and a surface profile of the structure prior to said processing. An optical measurement is applied to at least the selected sites of the structure after said processing and second measured data is generated being indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness of the processed structure (d′) and a surface profile of the processed structure, The second measured data is analyzed by interpreting it using the first measured data to thereby determine a thickness (d′ 1 or d′ 2 ) of at least one layer of the processed structure. This determined thickness is thus indicative of the quality of said processing.
1. A method for use in controlling material removal processing of a shallow trench isolation structure comprising a silicon oxide layer and a silicon nitride layer, the method comprising:
providing first measured data indicative of a thickness of at least one of the silicon oxide and a silicon nitride layers of the structure in at least one selected site of the structure prior to the material removing processing;
applying spectral optical measurement to the at least one selected site on the structure after the material removal processing and generating second measured data indicative of a spectral response of the at least one selected site of the processed structure; and
analyzing the second measured data using the first measured data, and outputting data comprising a thickness of at least one of the silicon oxide and silicon nitride layers of the processed structure, the output data being indicative of the quality of the material removal processing.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first measured data is provided by applying measurement to the structure prior to processing.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first measured data is reference data obtained while controlling a previous processing of the structure.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the material removal processing is Chemical-Mechanical Polishing.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first measured data is indicative of the thickness of the silicon nitride layer, and the analyzing of the second measured data comprises comparing the first and second measured data.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the output data includes a thickness of the silicon nitride layer.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the process to be controlled for removing the silicon oxide layer and partially removing the silicon nitride layer.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the output data includes a thickness of the silicon nitride layer and a thickness of the silicon oxide layer.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first measured data is provided by applying measurement to the structure after the silicon oxide layer deposition process.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying spectral optical measurement is performed by an integrated metrology tool.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein providing first measured data prior to the material removal processing and applying spectral optical measurement after the material removal processing are performed by the integrated metrology tool.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the output data indicative of the quality of the material removal processing is further used in operation of a tool performing the material removal processing.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the output data indicative of the quality of the material removal processing is further used in operation of a processing tool performing the material removal processing.