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CN-122029491-A - Determination method, pattern transfer method, article manufacturing method, program, information processing apparatus, and lithography system

CN122029491ACN 122029491 ACN122029491 ACN 122029491ACN-122029491-A

Abstract

A determination method includes a generation step of generating correction measurement data by removing components of an array of a plurality of exposure field areas depending on a first substrate from measurement data of the first substrate, wherein a pattern is transferred onto the first substrate by a lithographic apparatus, and a determination step of determining correction values to be provided to the lithographic apparatus when transferring the pattern onto a second substrate by using the lithographic apparatus, based on the correction measurement data and the array of the plurality of exposure field areas of the second substrate.

Inventors

  • KAJITANI SHOJI

Assignees

  • 佳能株式会社

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20241001
Priority Date
20231003

Claims (16)

  1. 1. A method of determining, comprising: A generation step of generating corrected measurement data by removing components of the array of the plurality of exposure field areas depending on the first substrate from measurement data of the first substrate, in which the pattern is transferred onto the first substrate by the lithographic apparatus, and A determining step of determining a correction value to be provided to the lithographic apparatus when transferring the pattern onto the second substrate by using the lithographic apparatus, based on the correction measurement data and the array of the plurality of exposure field areas of the second substrate.
  2. 2. The determination method according to claim 1, wherein the measurement data includes measurement data regarding positions of a plurality of marks of the first substrate.
  3. 3. The determination method according to claim 1, wherein the array-dependent component includes a component common to the plurality of exposure field areas of the first substrate.
  4. 4. The determination method according to claim 1, wherein the array-dependent component includes an average value of measurement data of each of the plurality of exposure field areas of the first substrate.
  5. 5. The determination method according to claim 1, wherein the lithographic apparatus is an exposure apparatus, and The array-dependent component includes a component dependent on a step driving direction between exposure field regions of the first substrate.
  6. 6. The determination method according to claim 1, wherein the lithographic apparatus is a scanning exposure apparatus, and The array-dependent component includes a component dependent on a scanning direction of each of the plurality of exposure field regions of the first substrate in the scanning exposure.
  7. 7. The determination method according to claim 1, wherein the array-dependent component includes a difference between previous measurement data of the first substrate and current measurement data of the first substrate.
  8. 8. The determination method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the measurement data includes measurement data of overlay error.
  9. 9. The determination method according to claim 1, wherein the measurement data includes measurement data regarding heights of the plurality of portions of the first substrate.
  10. 10. The determination method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein in the generating step, the correction measurement data is generated by interpolating data obtained by removing array-dependent components from the measurement data.
  11. 11. The determination method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, further comprising a step of obtaining measurement data by measuring the first substrate.
  12. 12. A pattern transfer method comprising: a step of determining a correction value by the determination method defined in any one of claims 1 to 11, and And a step of transferring the pattern onto the second substrate while correcting the lithographic apparatus based on the correction value.
  13. 13. A method of manufacturing an article, comprising: A step of transferring a pattern onto a second substrate by the pattern transfer method defined in claim 12, and A step of obtaining an article by processing the second substrate onto which the pattern is transferred.
  14. 14. A program that causes a computer to execute the determination method defined in any one of claims 1 to 11.
  15. 15. An information processing apparatus comprising: A generation unit configured to generate corrected measurement data by removing components of the array of the plurality of exposure field areas depending on the first substrate from measurement data of the first substrate, wherein the pattern is transferred onto the first substrate by the lithographic apparatus, and And a determining unit configured to determine a correction value to be provided to the lithographic apparatus when transferring the pattern onto the second substrate by using the lithographic apparatus, based on the correction measurement data and the array of the plurality of exposure field areas of the second substrate.
  16. 16. A lithographic system comprising a lithographic apparatus, the system comprising: A generation unit configured to generate corrected measurement data by removing components of the array of the plurality of exposure field areas depending on the first substrate from measurement data of the first substrate, wherein the pattern is transferred onto the first substrate by the lithographic apparatus, and A determination unit configured to determine a correction value to be used when transferring a pattern onto the second substrate based on the correction measurement data and an array of a plurality of exposure field areas of the second substrate, Wherein the pattern is transferred by the lithographic apparatus onto the plurality of exposure field areas of the second substrate while the lithographic apparatus is controlled according to the correction value.

Description

Determination method, pattern transfer method, article manufacturing method, program, information processing apparatus, and lithography system Technical Field The invention relates to a determination method, a pattern transfer method, an article manufacturing method, a program, an information processing apparatus, and a lithography system. Background Recently, with higher integration and miniaturization of semiconductor integrated circuits, line widths of patterns formed on a substrate have been greatly reduced. With this trend, further miniaturization is required in a photolithography process for forming a resist pattern on a substrate. In step-and-repeat exposure apparatus and step-and-scan exposure apparatus, alignment between the master and the substrate is important. A general alignment method is a method (global alignment) of performing alignment by measuring positions of alignment marks in a plurality of sample exposure field areas selected from a plurality of exposure field areas on a substrate and obtaining an array of the plurality of exposure field areas based on the measurement. Recently, in order to correct nonlinear deformation of a substrate, a higher-order exposure field array correction model and a higher-order exposure field shape correction model are used. The main indicator for the alignment result is overlay error (overlay error). The overlay error indicates a relative positional shift between layers formed in the photolithography process. With higher integration and miniaturization of semiconductor integrated circuits, there is an increasing demand for reducing overlay errors. Factors that cause nonlinear deformation of the substrate may include features of a substrate holding mechanism that holds the substrate in the exposure apparatus, in addition to a photolithography process or the like that forms a pattern on the substrate. Ideally, the substrate holding mechanism is configured to correct deflection of the substrate caused by the photolithography process to a flat state. However, it is difficult to correct the particularly outer peripheral region of the substrate to a flat state, and thus unevenness is inevitably caused. The occurrence of unevenness will cause an error in the position measurement of the alignment mark provided in the exposure field region of the substrate, resulting in degradation of the overlay error as a result of the alignment between the previous layer and the new layer in the photolithography process. Further, the unevenness of the substrate affects focus control and causes deterioration of overlay error, and thus causes deterioration of resolution of a pattern formed on the substrate. Japanese patent No. 6630839 discloses a method of reducing overlay degradation and focus degradation with respect to unevenness of a substrate by determining a deflection amount of the substrate based on characteristics of a substrate holding mechanism and calibrating alignment control. Since the substrate holding mechanism repeatedly contacts the substrate for a long period of time, some members are deformed and worn due to collision when holding the substrate and pressure applied when releasing the substrate. Further, since the demands for improvement in overlay error and focus requirements are increasing with higher integration and miniaturization of semiconductor integrated circuits, individual differences between substrate holding mechanisms are not negligible. Accordingly, there is a need to reduce the effects of local fine substrate deflection and substrate deflection caused by the substrate holding mechanism on alignment accuracy. Disclosure of Invention The present invention provides a technique that is advantageous in improving the transfer accuracy of a pattern with respect to a substrate. One aspect of the invention is associated with a method of determination. The determination method includes a generating step of generating correction measurement data by removing components of an array of a plurality of exposure field areas depending on a first substrate from measurement data of the first substrate, wherein a pattern is transferred onto the first substrate by a lithographic apparatus, and a determining step of determining a correction value to be provided to the lithographic apparatus when transferring the pattern onto a second substrate by using the lithographic apparatus, based on the correction measurement data and the array of the plurality of exposure field (shot) areas of the second substrate. Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Note that the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like components. Drawings The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the