In recent years, the pursuit of high storage capacity in 3D-NAND flash devices has driven the addition of more layers to increase the stack height. Challenges arise when etching high aspect ratio memory holes. Due to the existence of a thick and opaque hard mask layer, overlay control faces significant lot-to-lot variation and difficulty of run-to-run feedback control. In this paper, a fundamental study on channel hole overlay variation is revealed by collecting and analyzing step-by step overlay, etch tilt and stress data. The strong correlation between overlay/tilt/stress identifies the main contributor of overlay lot-to-lot variation to be from etch tilt, which also strongly correlates to etch chamber RF hour (accumulated hours the chamber has run since its last PM event) without chamber dependency. In addition, overlay simulations showed lots grouped by RF hour can effectively reduce lot-to-lot overlay variation.
KEYWORDS: Semiconducting wafers, Critical dimension metrology, Scanning electron microscopy, Overlay metrology, Sensors, Signal detection, 3D metrology, Etching, Electron beams, Electron microscopes
An auto e-beam tilt technology was used to measure bottom critical dimensions (CD) of High-Aspect Ratio (HAR) contact holes. Results show that traditional Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) is not capable of catching bottom information, such as bending structures. A new method with hardware and software has been developed to first find the best angle to detect bottom electron signals with high acceleration voltage and then synthesize with multi-angle electron signals. By using this method, accurate bottom CD as well as the angle and direction of bended hole can be measured automatically. It is very effective for inline metrology of HAR 3D structure in semiconductor wafer processing.
In traditional 3D NAND design, peripheral circuit accounts for 20-30% of the chip real-estate, which reduces the memory density of flash memory. As 3D NAND technology stacks to 128 layers or higher, peripheral circuits may account for more than 50% of the overall chip area. On the contrast, the XtackingTM technology arranges array and logic parts on two different wafers, and connects the memory arrays to the logic circuit by metal VIAs (Vertical Interconnect Accesses) to achieve unprecedented high storage density as well as DRAM level I/O speed. As a consequence, it becomes increasingly significant to monitor metal VIAs depth before wafer bonding process as to ensure reliability of array-logic connections. Currently, AFM (Atom Force Microscopy) is the main stream method of VIA depth monitoring. Apparently, AFM wins the battle of precision, however the low throughput limited its usage in mass production. In order to accomplish the requirement of VLSI production, a WLI (White Light Interferometry) metrology is revisited and a novel neural network assisted method was developed to monitor VIA depth. Basically, there are two major limitations that keep WLI tools from wider use, transparent film impact and diffraction limitation. In this work, realization of neural network is illustrated and inline dishing measurement is achieved with high accuracy and precision.
Tilted channel holes affect final yield significantly in High Aspect Ratio (HAR) 3D NAND memory wafer processing. An in-line measurement method is developed to use machine learning that utilizes the spectra from optical metrology to map Tilt-X and Tilt-Y. Reliable reference is provided by high voltage SEM. Results show that the correlation of optical and HV e-Beam measurements has R2 more than 0.92. In addition, measurement throughput is improved tremendously by 40% from e-Beam to optical metrology. Combined with other optical metrology on the same platform (thickness, and Optical CD), this method is much efficient for in-line tilt measurement after channel hole etch process.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.