US-20260126403-A1 - X-RAY EQUIPMENT FOR SEMICONDUCTOR STRUCTURAL INSPECTION AND METHOD FOR INSPECTING SEMICONDUCTOR STRUCTURE

US20260126403A1US 20260126403 A1US20260126403 A1US 20260126403A1US-20260126403-A1

Abstract

X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection includes an X-ray source configured to radiate an X-ray beam to a target region of an object to be inspected, a scintillator configured to output visible light in a visible light wavelength band in response to a particular wavelength band among wavelength bands of the X-ray beam, a detector configured to generate a detection signal in response to the visible light, and a controller configured to determine defects in the object to be inspected using the detection signal. The scintillator is disposed between the object to be inspected and the detector.

Inventors

Garam CHOI
Taejin KWON
Jungho MOON
Myoungki Ahn
SeungRyeol Lee
Hyeongcheol Lee
Sukbum HONG

Assignees

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251016
Priority Date: 20241104

Claims (20)

1 . X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection, comprising: an X-ray source configured to radiate an X-ray beam to a target region of an object to be inspected, a scintillator configured to output visible light in a visible light wavelength band in response to a particular wavelength band among wavelength bands of the X-ray beam, a detector configured to generate a detection signal in response to the visible light, and a controller configured to determine defects in the object to be inspected using the detection signal, wherein the scintillator is disposed between the object to be inspected and the detector.
2 . The X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 1 , wherein the detector comprises a first detector and a second detector installed in different locations, and wherein the scintillator comprises a first scintillator installed between the object to be inspected and the first detector, and a second scintillator installed between the object to be inspected and the second detector.
3 . The X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 2 , wherein the first scintillator is configured to output first visible light in response to a first particular wavelength band among the wavelength bands of the X-ray beam, and wherein the second scintillator is configured to output second visible light in response to a second particular wavelength band, different from the first particular wavelength band among the wavelength bands of the X-ray beam.
4 . The X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 3 , wherein the controller is configured to generate an image of the target region using a first detection signal output by the first detector and a second detection signal output by the second detector.
5 . The X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 4 , wherein the controller is configured to generate an image of the target region using a laminography method.
6 . The X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 4 , wherein the target region comprises measurement patterns and neighboring patterns adjacent to the measurement patterns, and wherein the first scintillator and the second scintillator have transmittance for first material included in the measurement patterns and second material included in the neighboring patterns, in each of the first particular wavelength band and the second particular wavelength band.
7 . The X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 2 , wherein the first detector and the second detector are disposed to be tilted toward each other in a direction parallel to an upper surface of the target region, and the direction is a direction penetrating through a center axis of the target region and perpendicular to the center axis of the target region.
8 . The X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 7 , wherein the controller is configured to rotate the first detector and the second detector 360 degrees while the X-ray beam is radiated onto the target region.
9 . The X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 1 , wherein the X-ray source is configured to radiate the X-ray beam to the target region as a cone beam shape.
10 . The X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 1 , further comprising: a low pass filter installed between the X-ray source and the object to be inspected.
11 . Inline X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection, comprising: an X-ray source configured to radiate a broadband X-ray beam within an X-ray wavelength band obliquely to a target region of an object to be inspected; a first scintillator configured to output first visible light in response to a first particular wavelength band of the X-ray beam having passed through the target region; a second scintillator configured to output second visible light in response to a second particular wavelength band of the X-ray beam having passed through the target region; and a detector configured to output a detection signal in response to the first visible light and the second visible light.
12 . The inline X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 11 , wherein the detector generates a first image corresponding to the first visible light and a second image corresponding to the second visible light.
13 . The inline X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 11 , wherein the detector comprises a first detector receiving the first visible light and a second detector receiving the second visible light.
14 . The inline X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 13 , configured such that while the X-ray beam is radiated onto the target region, the first detector rotates together with the first scintillator and the second detector rotates together with the second scintillator.
15 . The inline X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 11 , wherein the first particular wavelength band and the second particular wavelength band are wavelength bands having different absorption rates depending on a concentration of a predetermined material.
16 . The inline X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 11 , wherein the target region includes measurement patterns and a neighboring patterns adjacent to the measurement patterns and formed of a material different from that of the measurement patterns, and the first particular wavelength band and the second particular wavelength band are wavelength bands having different absorption rates with respect to the measurement patterns.
17 . The inline X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection of claim 16 , wherein the first particular wavelength band and the second particular wavelength band are wavelength bands having different absorption rates with respect to the neighboring patterns.
18 . A method for inspecting a semiconductor structure, comprising: radiating a target region of an object to be inspected with an X-ray beam having a cone beam shape; exposing a detector to visible light using a scintillator reacting to the X-ray beam having passed through the target region; obtaining a detection signal output by the detector; and generating an image representing measurement patterns included in the target region using the detection signal, wherein the image is generated using a first detection signal output by the detector and corresponding to a first particular wavelength band of the X-ray beam, and a second detection signal output by the detector and corresponding to a second particular wavelength band of the X-ray beam.
19 . The method for inspecting a semiconductor structure of claim 18 , further comprising: selecting the scintillator by determining the first particular wavelength band having a first absorption rate for a material included in the measurement patterns, and the second particular wavelength band having a second absorption rate, different from the first absorption rate for the material included in the measurement patterns.
20 . The method for inspecting a semiconductor structure of claim 18 , wherein the detector is rotated 360 degrees to obtain the detection signal.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims the priority and benefit of Korean Patent Application Nos. 10-2024-0154596, filed on Nov. 4, 2024, and 10-2025-0102214, filed on Jul. 28, 2025 with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND The present disclosure relates to X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection and a method for inspecting a semiconductor structure, and more particularly, to X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection and a method for inspecting a semiconductor structure for detecting defects in structures included in an object to be inspected with high resolution. A stacking method is being widely introduced not only in semiconductor package products but also in pre-process products (e.g., a BVNAND, W2W bonding, or the like) which complete chips by engraving circuits on semiconductor wafers. Accordingly, the need to inspect or measure microscopic defects therebelow in a three-dimensional structure of semiconductor products is greatly increasing. Since existing optical/electron microscope methods have limitations, attempts to utilize new types of equipment such as ultrasound and X-ray are gradually increasing. X-ray equipment allows X-rays to pass through a sample to view an interior of the sample, and includes Computed Laminography (CL) technology, Computed Tomography (CT) technology, and the like. CT technology has a limitation in the application of the technology to semiconductor wafer inspection/measurement, for example, because it cannot transmit light when a semiconductor wafer with a diameter of 300 mm is parallel to incident light. For this reason, CT technology, in which the incident light is incident obliquely toward a sample surface, has emerged in inline X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection. The CL technology may uniformly measure wide and thin samples for semiconductor structure inspection, such as a semiconductor wafer with a diameter of 300 mm or an advanced semiconductor package (AVP), but has lower resolution than that of CT technology. Low resolution makes it difficult if not impossible to measure defects such as voids within a microbump μBump of 1 μm or less in the advanced package and not-wet defects, which are microscopic contact defects. In the semiconductor industry, inline X-ray CT/CL equipment is being applied to semiconductor inspection. The application of such X-ray equipment to the semiconductor industry is relatively recent, and when the current X-ray equipment of a monochrome black and white spectrometer is applied to the semiconductor industry as is, there may be a problem in that it may be difficult to measure the same through semiconductor structures of micrometer (μm) size due to insufficient resolution and contrast. SUMMARY An aspect of the present inventive concept provides X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection and a method for inspecting a semiconductor structure for accurately determining defects in a target region irradiated with an X-ray beam in an object to be inspected, by obtaining a detection signal by separating a wavelength band of an X-ray beam emitted by an X-ray source. In addition, an aspect of the present inventive concept provides #X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection and a method for inspecting a semiconductor structure for obtaining a high-resolution image by selecting wavelength bands having different absorption rates for materials of structures included in a target region. According to an aspect of the present inventive concept, X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection includes an X-ray source configured to radiate an X-ray beam to a target region of an object to be inspected, a scintillator configured to output visible light in a visible light wavelength band in response to a particular wavelength band among wavelength bands of the X-ray beam, a detector configured to generate a detection signal in response to the visible light, and a controller configured to determine defects in the object to be inspected using the detection signal. The scintillator is disposed between the object to be inspected and the detector. According to an aspect of the present inventive concept, inline X-ray equipment for semiconductor structure inspection includes an X-ray source configured to radiate a broadband X-ray beam within an X-ray wavelength band obliquely to a target region of an object to be inspected, a first scintillator configured to output first visible light in response to a first particular wavelength band of the X-ray beam having passed through the target region, a second scintillator configured to output second visible light in response to a second wavelength band of the X-ray beam having passed through the target region, and a detector configured to output a detection signal in response to the first visible light and the second visible light. According