ALIGNMENT MARK, ALIGNMENT APPARATUS AND METHOD, EXPOSURE APPARATUS, AND DEVICE MANUFACTURING METHOD
An alignment mark including a first mark usable for both coarse alignment measurement in a first direction and fine alignment measurement in the first direction, and a second mark usable for coarse alignment measurement in a second direction different from the first direction.
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This application is a continuation application of copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/199,138, filed Aug. 9, 2005, which is a divisional of prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/241,534, filed Sep. 12, 2002, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,006,225 on Feb. 28, 2006.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to alignment marks and a substrate with the alignment marks, a positioning apparatus and method, an exposure apparatus using the positioning apparatus, and a device manufacturing method, provided in exposure processing, and the like, performed by a semiconductor exposure apparatus.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Wafer alignment in a general semiconductor manufacturing apparatus will be described with reference to
In step S02, the wafer W is set on a chuck CH and supplied to a stage STG by a wafer supply apparatus (not shown), and pre-aligned in step S03. In pre-alignment, a mirror MM is inserted into an optical path in a scope SC (the mirror MM moves to the right in
Then, global alignment is performed to accurately obtain the position of the wafer W and the position of an exposure shot in step S04. In global alignment, the mirror MM is removed from the optical path (the mirror MM moves to the left in
As described above, accurately obtaining the wafer position requires at least pre-alignment and global alignment on the chuck CH. Furthermore, since pre-alignment and global alignment have different detection targets, two kinds of marks are required.
In pre-alignment, the mark must be detected in a wide field of view after mechanical rough alignment. The mark must be detected by a low-magnification scope and must be as large as about 100 μm. In global alignment, the mark is precisely detected by a high-magnification scope because the mark has already been aligned with a shift of about 4 μm by pre-alignment. Hence, the marks are small.
In recent semiconductor fabrication, the wafer processing, called CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polish), is mainly performed. An alignment mark on a wafer having undergone CMP must be accurately measured. Hence, the shape and line width of the alignment mark must be tuned in accordance with the processing. Both the pre-alignment mark and global alignment mark must be respectively tuned. Tuning of the two kinds of marks requires a long time, and decreases the yield.
Recently, in order to minimize the manufacturing cost of the semiconductor, a scribe line in which the alignment mark, and the like, can be arranged is narrowed. In some cases, a scribe line with a width equal to or smaller than the size of the pre-alignment mark is required.
Additionally, in the step of forming a bonding pad, since the steps of a scribe line become large, the size of the alignment mark is further strictly limited.
However, in the step of forming the bonding pad, the steps of the scribe line become large, and a resist is applied to these large steps. Hence, unobservable areas are increased, and the areas in which the pre-alignment marks can be accurately observed are further narrowed. Hence, the pre-alignment marks of 100 μm are difficult to detect.
While the detection of the marks become difficult, demands are arising for short-time detection and measurement. Since the number of wafers processed per unit time must be increased, the time of a process called alignment not accompanied by exposure must be shortened as much as possible.
As described above, in general alignment, the following problems arise.
(1) Two kinds of marks are required for wafer alignment.
(2) Since the scribe line becomes narrow, the observable area becomes narrow, and a large pre-alignment mark cannot be arranged in the scribe line.
(3) Alignment processing time is required to be shortened.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention has been made in consideration of the above situation, and has as its object to provide alignment marks which can be shared by global alignment and pre-alignment and applied to a narrow scribe line, an alignment apparatus which uses the alignment marks, a method thereof, and the like.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an alignment apparatus which is effective in performing alignment using the alignment marks which can be shared by global alignment and pre-alignment, and can reduce the alignment processing time, a method thereof, and the like.
According to the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing an alignment mark, comprising a first mark usable for global alignment measurement in a first direction, and a second mark usable for pre-alignment measurement in a second direction.
According to the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing an alignment apparatus which positions a substrate having an alignment mark, comprising first measurement means for detecting the alignment mark on the substrate at a first magnification, and second measurement means for detecting the alignment mark on the substrate at a second magnification higher than the first magnification, wherein the first measurement means and the second measurement means share an objective unit, and a mark detection system is arranged so that the alignment mark can be detected at the first and second magnifications without switching an optical path.
According to the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing an alignment apparatus which positions a substrate having an alignment mark which includes a first mark usable for global alignment measurement in a first direction, and a second mark usable for pre-alignment measurement in a second direction, comprising first measurement means for performing pre-alignment measurement in the first and second directions of the alignment mark by using the first mark and the second mark, moving means for moving to correct a position of the substrate on the basis of a result of the pre-alignment measurement, and second measurement means for performing global alignment measurement by the first mark in the first direction of the alignment mark by using the first mark after moving the substrate.
According to the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing an alignment method of positioning a substrate having an alignment mark including a first mark usable for global alignment measurement in a first direction and a second mark usable for pre-alignment in a second direction, comprising a first measurement step of performing the pre-alignment measurement in the first and second directions of the alignment mark by using the first and second marks, a moving step of moving the substrate to correct the position on the basis of a result of the pre-alignment measurement, and a second measurement step of performing the global alignment measurement in the first direction of the alignment mark by using the first mark after the moving step.
According to the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing an alignment method of positioning a substrate having alignment marks, comprising a first measurement step of detecting the alignment mark on the substrate at a first magnification, and a second measurement step of detecting the alignment mark on the substrate at a second magnification higher than the first magnification, wherein, in the first and second measurement steps, the alignment mark is detected using mark detection systems which share an objective unit and detect at respective magnifications by branching an optical path without switching the optical path.
According to the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing a substrate having an alignment mark on a scribe line, wherein the alignment mark comprises a first mark usable for global alignment measurement in a first direction, which is a direction along which the scribe line extends, and a second mark usable for pre-alignment measurement in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.
Also, according to another aspect of the present invention, an exposure apparatus and a device manufacturing method using the above alignment apparatus are provided.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail in accordance with the accompanying drawings.
First Embodiment
As shown in
The position of the alignment mark shown in
The feature of the template pattern shown in
In pattern matching by the template as described above, the mark positions can be detected in the precision of one or two pixels. However, in pre-alignment measurement for implementing global alignment measurement, the mark positions must be obtained at a higher resolving power, i.e., in the precision of one pixel or less. A method of obtaining the mark positions in the precision of one pixel or less will be described below.
When the mark positions are determined in precision of one or two pixels by pattern matching described above, on the basis of the determined positions, windows for high-precision measurement are set in the portions determined by the set values of the marks.
In this manner, the average of the positions of all the X measurement marks in the X direction and the average of the positions of all the Y measurement marks in the Y direction are calculated in one alignment mark. The average values are used as measurement results obtained by pre-alignment performed for the alignment marks in the X and Y coordinates. As described above, the marks are detected by template matching at a low magnification. The marks are detected by a barycenter calculation after the windows are set, projected, and integrated at a high magnification.
The above pre-alignment processing will be further described with reference to
First, in step S11, the position of the alignment mark in
Note that the alignment mark in
Note that the alignment marks in
In the first embodiment, the pattern obtained by the dark field illumination is binarized, the mark positions are detected by pattern matching, and the mark positions are obtained by a barycenter calculation with a high resolution. However, as long as the marks can be identified, the bright field illumination or other illumination can be used. When the bright field illumination is used, the outline of the pattern may be black. Hence, white and black portions of the template shown in
A method of obtaining mark positions is not limited to the binarization. For example, various methods, e.g., a method of extracting the outline of the marks and performing pattern matching can be applied.
Second Embodiment
The alignment mark shown in
Note that the procedure of pre-alignment measurement for the alignment marks shown in
As described above, the following effects can be obtained by the alignment marks in the first and second embodiments. That is,
1. The alignment marks which can be arranged in the scribe lines and measure the X and Y coordinates at high precision can be obtained.
2. The global alignment mark (X measurement marks in
3. Since the auxiliary pattern is arranged at the center of the scribe line, the pattern is not affected by the edges of the scribe line in the measurement direction.
4. The mark for measuring both pre-alignment and global alignment is used. Hence, the size of the pre-alignment mark is reduced, and the damage, e.g., narrowed, observable area, can be prevented. Additionally, a mark dedicated area can be narrowed.
5. In mark tuning, such as CMP, both pre-alignment and global alignment need not be tuned, thereby increasing the yield and productivity.
Third Embodiment In the third embodiment, alignment processing, including global alignment, will be described by using the alignment marks described in the first and second embodiments and pre-alignment measurement thereof. In global alignment using the alignment marks described in
With reference to
On the basis of the center of the wafer obtained by the above pre-alignment, global alignment is performed to accurately obtain the wafer position and exposure shot position (step S04). Then, exposure starts (step S05). In global alignment, measurement is performed in the procedure shown in steps S13 to S15 in
Note that, in the above alignment processing, pre-alignment is performed using FX1 and FX3 (or FY1 and FY3), and after that, global alignment is performed using FX1 to FX4, and FY1 to FY4. However, the global alignment measurement may be performed for the marks immediately after each of pre-alignment measurement for FX1 and FX3 (for FY1 and FY3). In this manner, the moving amount of the stage STG for performing the pre-alignment measurement and the global alignment measurement for FX1 and FX3 (or FY1 and FY3) can be reduced.
In global alignment using the high-magnification sensor for detecting the positions of the alignment marks, the erroneous detection frequency becomes low with a change in measurement mark interval even at one portion in detecting a mark position (
In the above third embodiment, when the positions of the alignment marks shown in
A main controller MC controls a driving unit MS which drives a stage STG on the basis of a measurement result from the alignment mark measurement processing apparatus P and a signal from a stage position sensor LP. The main controller MC implements the control of alignment and exposure to be described below.
Referring to
In global alignment of this embodiment, the wafer moves to the mark position FX1 (step S101), and the scope SC simultaneously observes the marks by the low- and high-magnification sensors. That is, first, the positions of the alignment marks are obtained by sensing the mark FX1 at a low magnification (step S102). By using this result, a shift dx1 in the X direction and a shift dy1 in the direction from the target mark position are calculated (step S103). Note that, in low-magnification measurement processing, such as step S102, the procedure of the pre-alignment measurement described in step S11 in
Next, when the scope is to move to the mark position FY1, the target mark position FY1 is corrected by the shifts dx1 and dy1 calculated in step S103, and then moves to the mark position FY1 (step S106). Since the distance between the marks FX1 and FY1 is small, the mark FY1 can fall within the high-magnification field of view while rarely receiving the influence of a θ component obtained upon placing the wafer on the chuck. Therefore, the position measurement processing is immediately performed for the mark FY1 by the high-magnification sensor S2 (step S107), and then, the scope moves to the position of the next mark FX2.
The positions of the alignment marks FX2 and FY2 are calculated by the same processes as those in steps S101 to S107 (step S108 to S114). After two pairs of mark positions ((FX1, FY1) and (FX2, FY2)) are calculated, the θ component and the shift, i.e., shift X and shift Y of the center upon setting the wafer on the chuck can be determined (step S115). The target positions of the alignment marks FX3, FX4, FY3, and FY4, which have not undergone global alignment measurement, are corrected by θ, shift X, and shift Y. That is, the same processes are sequentially executed for the alignment marks FX3, FY3, FX4, and FY4 by the high-magnification detection system. These alignment marks need not be observed at a low magnification because their target positions are accurately corrected (steps S116 to S119).
This method can process the wafer without moving the scope SC to PAL and PAR, unlike the method in the prior art, which moves the scope SC to the positions PAL and PAR to obtain the mark positions. In the measurement of the marks FX1 and FX2, the pre-alignment measurement and the global alignment measurement can be performed without moving the scope SC. This method can shorten the stage moving distance (times), and the stage moving time in alignment processing.
Whether the alignment marks have fallen within the field of view of the high-magnification sensor is determined on the basis of the shift amount (e.g., dx1, dy1, dx2, and dy2) obtained as a result of the low-magnification measurement processing. When the marks fall within the field of view of the high-magnification sensor, the movement by the calculated shift amount can be omitted. In this manner, an increase in processing speed can be further expected.
The arrangement shown in
Note that, in sequential image sensing by the low- and high-magnification sensors, the amount of illumination light may be changed (by ND filter switching, and the like) in synchronism with an image sensing sequence so that illumination properly light-controlled is performed on a sensor. In this case, e.g., during image sensing at a low magnification, or before this sensing step, illumination information of the wafer may be obtained by sensing the image at a low magnification, and light control using the high-magnification sensor may be performed on the basis of the information.
Note that, after the sequential control for predetermined marks or a predetermined wafer is performed on the basis of the above flow of alignment, at least a part of the sequence for next marks or wafer may be omitted. For example, in processing shown in the flow chart in
With regard to an image sensing system, NAs (numerical apertures) may be made different by the optical system in the optical path after separating by the half-mirror, and the depth of focus of low-magnification image sensing may be larger than that of high-magnification image sensing. The wavelengths of the high- and low-magnification illumination light beams may be made different depending on the sensors.
For shortening a time, detection of the marks in the low-magnification image sensing, or focusing operation for the low-magnification image sensing may be started during wafer movement by the stage to the position for sensing an image at a low magnification.
The detection mode of a mark detection system at a high magnification may be different from that at a low magnification. For example, the scheme for image processing can be changed in accordance with the magnification. Low-magnification alignment can be performed under the bright field illumination, and high-magnification alignment can be performed under the dark field illumination. The mark can be detected by the reflected light or scattered light in beam scanning, in place of image sensing.
As described above, according to the above embodiments, pre-alignment and global alignment can be simultaneously performed. Hence, the stage moving amount for pre-alignment can be reduced, and alignment can be performed within a short time.
As described above, according to each embodiment described above, the alignment marks used for both pre-alignment and global alignment are provided. Hence, the pre-alignment marks become small to cope with damage, such as a narrow observable area. Additionally, the mark dedicated area can be made narrow. In mark tuning processing, such as CMP, both pre-alignment and global alignment need not be tuned. As a result, the yield and productivity increase.
Additionally, since the alignment marks are simultaneously observed at the low and high magnifications, the conventional pre-alignment processing is performed within a short time, and the number of wafers to be processed per unit time is decreased.
Additionally, according to the embodiments, the marks become so small that the width of the scribe lines, and the marks maintain a size large enough to be searched at a low magnification in the longitudinal direction of the scribe line. Hence, marks, which can cope with the decrease in width of the scribe line, and can be shared by global alignment and pre-alignment, are proposed. The marks cannot only cope with the decrease in width of the scribe line, but also, decrease the load of tuning the marks by sharing between pre-alignment and fine alignment. The detection error can be effectively prevented by different intervals between the marks and template design in pre-alignment. In the embodiment, since the number of times of stage movement for the pre-alignment processing and the moving amount are reduced, the throughput is increased. The marks of the present invention can effectively increase the yield by improving the quality of the semiconductor fabrication, and also, increase the productivity.
Semiconductor device manufacturing processing using the above-described exposure apparatus will be explained.
In step S204 (wafer processing), called a pre-process, an actual circuit is formed on the wafer by lithography using a prepared mask and the wafer. Step S205 (assembly), called post-processing, is the step of forming a semiconductor chip using the wafer manufactured in step S204, and includes assembly processing (dicing and bonding) and packaging processing (chip encapsulation). In step S206 (inspection), inspections, such as an operation confirmation test and a durability test of the semiconductor device manufactured in step S205, are conducted. After these steps, the semiconductor device is completed and shipped (step S207).
For example, the pre-processing and post-processing are performed in separate dedicated factories, and maintenance is done for each of the factories by the above-described remote maintenance system. Information for production management and apparatus maintenance is communicated between the pre-processing factory and the post-processing factory via the Internet or a dedicated network.
These steps are repeated to form multiple circuit patterns on the wafer.
As has been described above, the present invention can provide alignment marks, which can be shared by global alignment and pre-alignment, and applied to narrow scribe lines, and an alignment apparatus and method using the marks.
According to the present invention, global alignment and pre-alignment are performed without switching the optical path, by sharing an objective unit, thereby reducing an alignment time.
Claims
1-29. (canceled)
30. An alignment mark comprising:
- a first mark usable for both coarse alignment measurement in a first direction and fine alignment measurement in the first direction; and
- a second mark usable for coarse alignment measurement in a second direction different from the first direction.
31. A mark according to claim 30, wherein said first mark comprises a plurality of strip-shaped first measurement marks whose longitudinal directions are parallel.
32. A mark according to claim 31, wherein said second mark comprises a strip-shaped second measurement mark whose longitudinal direction is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of said first measurement mark.
33. A mark according to claim 32, wherein said second mark is arranged side by side with said first mark in the first direction.
34. A mark according to claim 31, wherein said first mark comprises at least three of said first measurement marks, and said at least three of said first measurement marks have at least two different intervals between a plurality of pairs of said first measurement marks adjacent to each other.
35. A substrate comprising an alignment mark, wherein said alignment mark comprises:
- a first mark usable for both coarse alignment measurement in a first direction and fine alignment measurement in the first direction; and
- a second mark usable for coarse alignment measurement in a second direction different from the first direction.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 15, 2006
Publication Date: Mar 29, 2007
Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA (Tokyo)
Inventor: Hiroshi TANAKA (Tochigi)
Application Number: 11/611,177
International Classification: H01L 23/544 (20060101);