KR-20260066612-A - X-ray equipment for semiconductor structural inspection and method for inspecting semiconductor structure

KR20260066612AKR 20260066612 AKR20260066612 AKR 20260066612AKR-20260066612-A

Abstract

An X-ray facility for inspecting a semiconductor structure according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises an X-ray source that irradiates an X-ray beam onto a target area of an object to be inspected, a scintillator that outputs visible light in a visible light wavelength band in response to a selected wavelength band among the wavelength bands of the X-ray beam, a detector that generates a detection signal in response to the visible light, and a controller that determines a defect in the object to be inspected using the detection signal, wherein the scintillator is disposed between the X-ray source and the object to be inspected or between the object to be inspected and the detector.

Inventors

최가람
권태진
문정호
안명기
이승렬
이형철
홍석범

Assignees

삼성전자주식회사

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20250728
Priority Date: 20241104

Claims (10)

An X-ray source that irradiates an X-ray beam onto a target area of the object to be inspected; A scintillator that outputs visible light in the visible light wavelength band in response to a selected wavelength band among the wavelength bands of the above X-ray beam; A detector that generates a detection signal in response to the above visible light; and A controller that determines defects in the inspection target using the detection signal; is included, The above scintillator is an X-ray facility for inspecting semiconductor structures, which is positioned between the X-ray source and the object to be inspected or between the object to be inspected and the detector.
In paragraph 1, The above detector includes a first detector and a second detector installed at different locations, and X-ray equipment for inspecting semiconductor structures, wherein the scintillator comprises a first scintillator installed between the inspection target and the first detector, and a second scintillator installed between the inspection target and the second detector.
In paragraph 2, The first scintillator outputs first visible light in response to a first selected wavelength band among the wavelength bands of the X-ray beam, and The above second scintillator is an X-ray facility for semiconductor structure inspection that outputs second visible light in response to a second selected wavelength band different from the first selected wavelength band among the wavelength bands of the X-ray beam.
In paragraph 3, The above controller is an X-ray facility for semiconductor structure inspection that generates an image of the target area using a first detection signal output by the first detector and a second detection signal output by the second detector.
In paragraph 4, The above controller is an X-ray facility for semiconductor structure inspection that generates an image of the target area using a laminography method.
In paragraph 4, The above target area includes a measurement pattern and a surrounding pattern around the measurement pattern, and X-ray equipment for inspecting semiconductor structures, wherein the first scintillator and the second scintillator are selected such that each of the first selected wavelength band and the second selected wavelength band has a different transmittance for each of the first material included in the measurement pattern and the second material included in the surrounding pattern. X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection.
In paragraph 2, X-ray equipment for inspecting semiconductor structures, wherein the first detector and the second detector are arranged to face each other along a direction parallel to the upper surface of the target area, and the direction is a direction penetrating the center of the target area.
In Paragraph 7, X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection, wherein while the X-ray beam is irradiated onto the target area, the controller rotates the first detector and the second detector 360 degrees.
As an X-ray facility for inline semiconductor structure inspection, An X-ray source that irradiates a broadband X-ray beam within the X-ray wavelength band at an angle to a target area of the inspection target; A first scintillator that outputs first visible light in response to a first selected wavelength band of the X-ray beam that has passed through the target region; A second scintillator that outputs second visible light in response to a second selected wavelength band of the X-ray beam that has passed through the target region; and X-ray equipment for inspecting semiconductor structures, comprising: a detector that outputs a detection signal in response to the first visible light and the second visible light.
A step of irradiating a target area of the inspection target with a cone beam X-ray; A step of irradiating visible light onto a detector using a scintillator that reacts to the X-ray beam that has passed through the target region; A step of acquiring a detection signal output by the detector; and The method includes the step of generating an image representing a measurement pattern included in the target area using the detection signal; A method for inspecting a semiconductor structure, wherein the first detection signal output by the detector and corresponding to a first selected wavelength band of the X-ray beam, and the second detection signal output by the detector and corresponding to a second selected wavelength band of the X-ray beam are used to generate the image.

Description

X-ray equipment for semiconductor structural inspection and method for inspecting semiconductor structure The present disclosure relates to an X-ray facility for inspecting semiconductor structures and a method for inspecting semiconductor structures, and in particular, to an X-ray facility for inspecting semiconductor structures and a method for inspecting semiconductor structures capable of detecting defects in structures included in the inspection target at high resolution. Stacking methods are being widely adopted not only in semiconductor packaging products but also in front-end process products (e.g., BVNAD, W2W bonding, etc.) where circuits are etched onto semiconductor wafers to complete chips. Consequently, there is a growing need to inspect or measure microscopic defects in the lower layers of the three-dimensional structure of semiconductor products. Since there are limitations to conventional optical/electron microscopy methods, there is a growing number of attempts to utilize new equipment such as ultrasound and X-ray. X-ray equipment is a method in which X-rays penetrate a sample to visualize its interior, and includes Computed Laminography (CL) technology and Computed Tomography (CT) technology. For example, CT technology has limitations in its application to semiconductor wafer inspection and measurement because penetration is impossible if, when a semiconductor wafer with a diameter of 300 mm is parallel to the incident light, the light cannot penetrate it. For this reason, CT technology, in which the incident light is directed at the sample surface at an angle, has emerged in inline X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection. This CL technology can uniformly measure wide and thin semiconductor structure inspection samples, such as semiconductor wafers with a diameter of 300 mm or Advanced Packages (AVPs), but has lower resolution compared to CT technology. If the resolution is low, there is a problem in that it is impossible to measure defects such as voids within a uBump of 1 µm or less in an advanced package, or not-wet defects which are fine contact failures. In the semiconductor industry, inline X-ray CT/CL equipment is being applied for semiconductor inspection. The application of such X-ray equipment to the semiconductor industry is relatively recent, and if the current X-ray equipment of a monochrome spectrometer is applied directly to the semiconductor industry, there is a problem in that it is difficult to penetrate and measure semiconductor structures in the µm range due to a lack of resolution and contrast. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an X-ray facility for inspecting semiconductor structures according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an X-ray facility for inspecting semiconductor structures according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a spectroscopic filter used in an X-ray facility for inspecting semiconductor structures according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for a semiconductor structure inspection method according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 5A and FIGS. 5B are graphs of a semiconductor structure inspection method according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 6a to 6c are drawings for explaining the inspection results of an X-ray facility for inspecting semiconductor structures according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a drawing for explaining the inspection results of an X-ray facility for inspecting semiconductor structures according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a drawing for explaining the inspection results of an X-ray facility for inspecting semiconductor structures according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 9a to 9c are drawings for explaining the inspection results of an X-ray facility for inspecting semiconductor structures according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 10a to 10c are drawings for explaining the inspection results of an X-ray facility for inspecting semiconductor structures according to one embodiment of the present invention. Some of the drawings are included as schematics. The drawings are illustrated for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered as drawn to actual scale. Additionally, drawings as schematics are provided to aid understanding and may not include all aspects or information compared to realistic representations, and may include exaggerated information. Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the attached drawings. The embodiments of the present disclosure may be modified in various different forms and are provided to more fully explain the concept to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the shapes and sizes of elements in the drawings may be exaggerated for clarity, and elements indicated by the same or similar r