Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for metrology usable, for example, in the manufacture of devices by lithographic techniques and to methods of manufacturing devices using lithographic techniques.
Background Art
A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a substrate, usually onto a target portion of the substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In that instance, a patterning device, which is alternatively referred to as a mask or a reticle, may be used to generate a circuit pattern to be formed on an individual layer of the IC. This pattern can be transferred onto a target portion (e.g., including part of, one, or several dies) on a substrate (e.g., a silicon wafer). Transfer of the pattern is typically via imaging onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on the substrate. In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively patterned.
In lithographic processes, it is desirable frequently to make measurements of the structures created, e.g., for process control and verification. Various tools for making such measurements are known, including scanning electron microscopes, which are often used to measure critical dimension (CD), and specialized tools to measure overlay, the accuracy of alignment of two layers in a device. Recently, various forms of scatterometers have been developed for use in the lithographic field. These devices direct a beam of radiation onto a target and measure one or more properties of the scattered radiation—e.g., intensity at a single angle of reflection as a function of wavelength; intensity at one or more wavelengths as a function of reflected angle; or polarization as a function of reflected angle—to obtain a “spectrum” from which a property of interest of the target can be determined. Determination of the property of interest may be performed by various techniques: e.g., reconstruction of the target structure by iterative approaches such as rigorous coupled wave analysis or finite element methods; library searches; and principal component analysis.
In the known metrology technique, overlay measurement results are obtained by measuring the target twice under certain conditions, while either rotating the target or changing the illumination mode or imaging mode to obtain separately the −1st and the +1st diffraction order intensities. Comparing these intensities for a given grating provides a measurement of asymmetry in the grating, and asymmetry in an overlay grating can be used as an indicator of overlay error.
Currently the overlay is deduced from targets which have a significantly larger pitch than the product features under the assumption that both are equal. Sub-segmented targets are sensitive to for instance lens aberrations, which cause a shift between the at-resolution subsegmentation and the larger overlay target grating pitch. Therefore the effective accuracy of the overlay measurement is compromised.
A similar to overlay error between layers is mismatch between populations in a single layer, formed by different steps in a process. For example, the finest product features are nowadays formed by multiple-patterning processes. It would be useful if the capabilities of existing metrology hardware could be extended to measurement of mismatch in double- and multiple-patterning processes. Again, however, the size of the product features is many times smaller than the resolution of the metrology hardware.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds