Integrated measuring instrument

Title: Integrated measuring instrument

Related Patent Categories: Measuring And Testing, Surface And Cutting Edge Testing, Roughness

Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Claims

The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060185424, Integrated measuring instrument.

1. A method of using an integrated scatterometer and atomic force microscope to monitor a fabrication process, comprising: mounting a work piece in work piece holder in a single system that includes both an atomic force microscope and a scatterometer; measuring a feature in a test measurement area using the atomic force microscope; generating scatterometer library graphs using the atomic force microscope measurement as input to a library generation program; measuring a test measurement area on the work piece using the scatterometer and the generated library graphs to determine a measured parameter of the measurement area; and if the measured parameter fails to meet a specified criterion, measuring one or more features of the work piece using the atomic force microscope without removing the work piece from work piece holder of the single system, thereby allowing features in the area measured by the scatterometer to be readily measured on the allowing the atomic force microscope if the scatterometer results are outside of specification or indeterminate and allowing the atomic force microscope to provide input for the generation of accurate library graph for use with the scatterometer.

2. A method of monitoring a fabrication process, comprising: mounting a work piece in work piece holder in a single system that includes both an integrating optical instrument and an individual-feature-measuring instrument; measuring a test measurement area on the work piece using the integrating optical instrument to determine a measured parameter of the measurement area; and if the measured parameter fails to meet a specified criterion, measuring one or more features of the work piece using the individual-feature-measuring instrument without removing the work piece from the single system.

3. The method of claim 2 in which measuring one or more features of the work piece using the individual-feature-measuring instrument includes measuring the one or more features without removing the work piece from the work piece holder.

4. The method of claim 3 in which measuring one or more features of the work piece using the individual-feature-measuring instrument includes measuring the one or more features without moving the work piece from the position at which it was measured using the integrated optical instrument.

5. The method of claim 3 in which measuring one or more features of the work piece using the individual-feature-measuring instrument includes moving the work piece holder a predetermined distance from the position at which it was measured using the integrated optical instrument.

6. The method of claim 2 in which measuring one or more features of the work piece using the individual-feature-measuring instrument includes measuring one or more features in the test measurement area.

7. The method of claim 2 in which measuring one or more features of the work piece using the individual-feature-measuring instrument includes measuring one or more features in a product area.

8. The method of claim 2 in which measuring a test measurement area on the work piece using the integrating optical includes measuring a test measurement area using a scatterometer.

9. The method of claim 2 in which measuring a test measurement area on the work piece using the integrating optical includes measuring a test measurement area using an ellipsometer or a reflectometer.

10. The method of claim 2 in which measuring one or more features of the work piece using the individual-feature-measuring instrument includes measuring a portion of the work piece using a scanning profile microscope or a charged particle beam instrument.

11. The method of claim 10 in which measuring one or more features of the work piece using the individual-feature-measuring instrument includes measuring a portion of the work piece using an atomic force microscope operating in a mode in which a probe tip is moved vertically to contact the work piece surface.

12. The method of claim 2 in which: measuring one or more features of the work piece using the individual-feature-measuring instrument includes measuring one or more features of the work piece using an atomic force microscope in which a probe tip is moved vertically to contact the work piece surface; and measuring a test measurement area on the work piece using the integrating optical instrument includes measuring a test measurement area with a scatterometer.

13. The method of claim 2 further comprising measuring a test site using the individual-feature-measuring instrument to provide input to a program that generates characterization graphs for use in interpreting the measurement results of the integrated optical instrument; and generating characterization graphs for use in interpreting the results of the integrated optical instrument.

14. The method of claim 13 in which generating characterization graphs includes generating characterization graphs comprising scatterometer graphs correlated to line pitch or line width.

15. The method of claim 2 in which measuring a test measurement area on the work piece using the integrating optical instrument to determine a measured parameter of the measurement area includes measuring a test measurement area on the work piece using the integrating optical instrument to determine a geometric parameter of the measurement area and further comprising: measuring a geometric parameter of a product feature on the work piece using the individual-feature-measuring instrument; comparing the measured geometric parameter of the product feature measured by the individual-feature-measuring instrument with the corresponding geometric parameter of the test pattern measured by the integrating optical instrument; if the measured parameters of the product feature determined by the individual-feature-measuring instrument and the measured parameter of the test area determined by the integrated optical instrument are not the same, determining based on the difference between the two measurements a measurement parameter offset between test pattern measurements and product feature measurements; and determining a dimension of product feature by measuring the test area using the scatterometer and applying the offset to a test area measurement.

16. A integrated measuring system, comprising: a work piece holder for holding a sample to be measured; an integrating optical instrument having a radiation source for irradiating an area of said work piece and an optical detector receiving radiation reflected from said area; and an individual-feature-measuring instrument for measuring the same work piece as measured by the integrating optical instrument, the individual-feature-measuring instrument being positioned in the same system as the integrated optical instrument so that a same work piece can be readily measured by both instruments.

17. The system of claim 16 in which the integrating optical instrument and the individual-feature-measuring instrument are positioned such that the area measured by the integrated optical instrument encompasses the area measured by the individual-feature-measuring instrument without repositioning the work piece.

18. The system of claim 16 in which the integrating optical instrument and the individual-feature-measuring instrument are positioned such that the area measured by the integrated optical instrument is offset by a predetermined distance from the area measured by the individual-feature-measuring instrument, thereby allowing the work piece holder to be repositioned by a predetermined amount when switching between the two measuring instruments.

19. The system of claim 16 in which the integrating optical instrument comprises a scatterometer.

20. The system of claim 16 in which the integrating optical instrument comprises a scatterometer and the individual-feature-measuring instrument comprises an atomic force microscope.

Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Claims

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Industry Class:
Measuring and testing

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