US-12618667-B2 - Measurement apparatus

US12618667B2US 12618667 B2US12618667 B2US 12618667B2US-12618667-B2

Abstract

In order to improve the throughput performance and/or economy of a measurement apparatus, the present disclosure provides a metrology apparatus including: a first measuring apparatus; a second measuring apparatus; a first substrate stage configured to hold a first substrate and/or a second substrate; a second substrate stage configured to hold the first substrate and/or the second substrate; a first substrate handler configured to handle the first substrate and/or the second substrate; and a second substrate handler configured to handle the first substrate and/or the second substrate, wherein the first substrate is loaded from a first, second or third FOUP, wherein the second substrate is loaded from the first, second or third FOUP, wherein the first measuring apparatus is an alignment measuring apparatus, and wherein the second measuring apparatus is a level sensor, a film thickness measuring apparatus or a spectral reflectance measuring apparatus.

Inventors

Franciscus Godefridus Casper Bijnen
Junichi KANEHARA
Stefan Carolus Jacobus Antonius Keij
Thomas Augustus Mattaar
Petrus Franciscus Van Gils

Assignees

ASML NETHERLANDS B.V.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20231212
Priority Date: 20170714

Claims (20)

1 . A metrology apparatus to measure a substrate prior to it being sent to a separate lithographic apparatus for exposure, based on measurements made by the metrology apparatus, of the substrate, the metrology apparatus comprising: a first station comprising an alignment sensor system to measure positions of alignment marks on the substrate; a second station comprising a sensor system to measure the substrate or another substrate, wherein a central portion of the second station is spaced by at least the cross-sectional dimension of the substrate from a central portion of the first station; and a movable substrate table constructed to hold the substrate, wherein the substrate table is arranged to move to the first station and the second station.
2 . The metrology apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sensor system of the second station comprises a film thickness measuring apparatus or a spectral reflectance measuring apparatus.
3 . The metrology apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first station further comprises a level sensor configured to make height measurements.
4 . The metrology apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sensor system of the second station comprises a level sensor configured to make height measurements.
5 . The metrology apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the second station further comprises a further alignment sensor system and wherein the alignment sensor system of the first station is of a different type than the further alignment sensor system of the second station.
6 . The metrology apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a structure of the first station and/or second station is designed to selectively add an alignment measuring apparatus, a level sensor, a film thickness measuring apparatus, a spectral reflectance measuring apparatus, a laser ablation unit and/or an overlay sensor.
7 . The metrology apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a laser ablation unit.
8 . The metrology apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a further movable substrate table constructed to hold another substrate, wherein the further substrate table is arranged to move to the first station and the second station.
9 . A metrology apparatus to measure a substrate prior to it being sent to a separate lithographic apparatus for exposure, based on measurements made by the metrology apparatus, of the substrate, the metrology apparatus comprising: a first substrate stage configured to hold the substrate; a second substrate stage configured to hold another substrate; an alignment sensor system to measure positions of alignment marks on the substrate supported by the first substrate stage; an overlay sensor system to measure overlay on the other substrate; and a processing system configured to control the apparatus to cause the alignment sensor system and the overlay sensor system to simultaneously measure the first substrate and second substrate, respectively.
10 . The metrology apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the first substrate stage and/or the second substrate stage is movable from measurement of a substrate by the alignment sensor system to measurement of the substrate by the overlay sensor system or vice versa.
11 . The metrology apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising a film thickness measuring apparatus or a spectral reflectance measuring apparatus.
12 . The metrology apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising a level sensor configured to make height measurements.
13 . The metrology apparatus of claim 12 , further comprising a further level sensor configured to make height measurements, wherein the level sensor and the further level sensor are configured to measure the first substrate and second substrate, respectively, in parallel.
14 . The metrology apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising a further alignment sensor system to measure positions of alignment marks on a substrate supported by the first substrate stage and/or the second substrate stage.
15 . The metrology apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising a laser ablation unit.
16 . A metrology apparatus to measure a substrate prior to it being sent to a separate lithographic apparatus for exposure, based on measurements made by the metrology apparatus, of the substrate, the metrology apparatus comprising: a first station comprising a sensor system to obtain the measurements of the substrate; a second station comprising a sensor system to measure the substrate or another substrate, wherein a central portion of the second station is spaced by at least the cross-sectional dimension of the substrate from a central portion of the first station; and a movable substrate table constructed to hold the substrate, wherein the substrate table is arranged to move to the first station and the second station.
17 . The metrology apparatus of claim 16 , further comprising a further movable substrate table constructed to hold another substrate, wherein the further substrate table is arranged to move to the first station and the second station.
18 . The metrology apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the sensor system of the first and/or second station comprises a level sensor configured to make height measurements.
19 . The metrology apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the sensor system of the first and/or second station comprises an overlay sensor configured to measure overlay on a substrate.
20 . The metrology apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the sensor system of the first and/or second station comprises a film thickness measuring apparatus or a spectral reflectance measuring apparatus.

Description

This application is a continuation of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/412,525, filed Aug. 26, 2021, now allowed, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/629,990, filed Jan. 10, 2020, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,105,619, which is the U.S. national phase entry of PCT Patent Application No. PCT/162018/055196, filed on Jul. 13, 2018, which claims the benefit of priority of European Patent Application No. 17181375.1 filed Jul. 14, 2017 and of European Patent Application No. 18170698.7, filed May 3, 2018, each of the foregoing applications is incorporated herein in its entirety. FIELD This disclosure relates to an alignment measuring apparatus, and a method to measure positions of alignment marks on a substrate, relates to a lithographic apparatus and a substrate stage handler system and to a metrology apparatus. BACKGROUND A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a substrate, usually onto a target portion of the substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In that instance, a patterning device, which is alternatively referred to as a mask or a reticle, may be used to generate a circuit pattern to be formed on an individual layer of the IC. This pattern can be transferred onto a target portion (e.g. comprising part of, one, or several dies) on a substrate (e.g. a silicon wafer). Transfer of the pattern is typically via imaging onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on the substrate. In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively patterned. Known lithographic apparatus include so-called steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion at one time, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through a radiation beam in a given direction (the “scanning”-direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. It is also possible to transfer the pattern from the patterning device to the substrate by imprinting the pattern onto the substrate. In a known embodiment of a lithographic apparatus, the lithographic apparatus comprises an alignment measuring system to measure positions of alignment marks provided on the substrate. By measuring the positions of these alignment marks, a position and/or a deformation of the substrate with respect to a substrate table holding the substrate may be determined. This measured position and/or deformation of the substrate enables the lithographic apparatus to position the substrate in a desired position with respect to the projection system and/or the patterning device during the actual projection of a patterned radiation beam on a target portion of the substrate. In this way, consecutive projections of a patterned radiation beam on a target portion of the substrate can be aligned with respect to each other. The overlay performance, i.e. the alignment of consecutive projections of a patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of the substrate is an important factor in product quality of a device manufactured using the lithographic apparatus. There is a general need to improve the overlay performance of a lithographic apparatus to improve product quality. The overlay performance may for example be improved by measurement of substantially more alignment marks on the substrate. In particular, the substrate alignment grid may contain high frequency components of distortion that can be better corrected by measurement of a larger number of alignment marks. However, the measurement of a larger number of alignment marks will result in an increased alignment measurement time and will therefore have a limiting effect on the production performance of the lithographic apparatus. Furthermore, during the manufacturing process of a device, the substrate is subject to multiple processing steps, such as layer deposition, etching, and annealing. The impact of these processing steps, which typically result in variation between substrates and/or between stacks of substrates and/or between layers of a substrate, on the overlay performance of the lithographic process is also significant. CITATION LIST Patent Document Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-250578Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2012-202980Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-135211Patent Document 4: PCT Patent Application Publication WO 2012/115013 SUMMARY Conventionally, there has been proposed an apparatus comprising a single substrate stage to measure (or inspect) one type of property of a substrate (for example, see Patent Documents 1 to 4). However, when such a conventional technique is adopted, in order to measure (and/or inspect) multiple properties of the same substrate, multiple apparatuses w