Embodiments of this invention generally relate to semiconductor wafer processing and more particularly to a sensor wafer with a resistant coating used for an etch chamber.
The fabrication of an integrated circuit, display or disc memory generally employs numerous processing steps. Each process step must be carefully monitored in order to provide an operational device. Throughout the imaging process, deposition and growth process, etching and masking process, etc., it is critical, for example, that temperature, gas flow, vacuum, pressure, chemical, gas or plasma composition and exposure distance be carefully controlled during each step. Careful attention to the various processing conditions involved in each step is a requirement of optimal semiconductor or thin film processes. Any deviation from optimal processing conditions may cause the ensuing integrated circuit or device to perform at a substandard level or, worse yet, fail completely.
Within a processing chamber, processing conditions vary. The variations in processing conditions such as temperature, gas flow rate and/or gas composition greatly affect the formation and, thus, the performance of the integrated circuit. Using a sensor having a substrate that is of the same or similar material as the integrated circuit or other device to measure the processing conditions provides the most accurate measure of the conditions because the material properties of the substrate are the same as those of the actual circuits that will be processed. Gradients and variations exist throughout the chamber for virtually all process conditions. These gradients, therefore, also exist across the surface of a substrate, as well as below and above it. In order to precisely control processing conditions at the wafer, it is critical that measurements be taken upon the wafer and are available in real time to an automated control system or operator to readily optimize the chamber processing conditions. Processing conditions include any parameter used to control semiconductor or other device fabrication or any condition a manufacturer would desire to monitor.
One technique for monitoring process conditions in-situ makes use of a measuring device having sensors incorporated onto a substrate similar to the wafers that are processed in the chamber. US publication No. 20060174720 discloses an example of a measuring device incorporating a substrate with sensors that measure the processing conditions that a wafer may undergo during manufacturing. The substrate can be inserted into a processing chamber by a robot and the measuring device can transmit the conditions in real time or store the conditions for subsequent analysis. Sensitive electronic components of the device can be distanced or isolated from the most deleterious processing conditions in order to increase the accuracy, operating range, and reliability of the device.
Monitoring etch conditions, e.g., the temperature, in-situ during an etch process (e.g., a plasma etch) using a sensor wafer is particularly problematic since the sensor wafer is subject to etching during monitoring of the process conditions in the chamber. An unprotected sensor wafer is therefore subject to attack, e.g., by silicon etch chemistry or plasma bombardment in an etch environment. Current sensor wafers use a silicon cover to protect the sensors and best simulate the workpieces being etched. However, when the silicon cover is subjected to the etch process black or white silicon is produced. The black or white silicon contamination can lead to particle generation, which is undesirable in the process chamber.
Some prior art sensor wafers based on silicon wafer substrates have used standard thin film materials such as polyimide or silicon oxide coatings to protect the sensor wafer from etching during measurement in plasma etch conditions. However, the polyimide and silicon oxide coatings have limited resistance to etch under poly and through-silicon via (TSV) etch conditions. For a sensor wafer used in a plasma etch chamber it would be desirable for the protective coating to last at least 10 hours. Experience with such coated wafers has shown that SiO2 and polyimide coatings cannot last this long unless they are extremely thick, e.g., approximately 10 μm thick for SiO2 and at least 100 μm thick for polyimide. Unfortunately, a thicker coating can introduce artifacts in temperature measurement and may also warp the wafer. Thus, there is an unmet need for a sensor wafer that can survive for 10 hours of cumulative exposure to a plasma etch environment.
In addition to being etch resistant, it would be further desirable for the coating to be relatively thin, non-contaminating, and strongly adhering to the cover and substrate material.
It is within this context that embodiments of the present invention arise.
The teachings of the present invention can be readily understood by considering the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Although the following detailed description contains many specific details for the purposes of illustration, anyone of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that many variations and alterations to the following details are within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the exemplary embodiments of the invention described below are set forth without any loss of generality to, and without imposing limitations upon, the claimed invention.
Introduction
A number of different materials have been considered for use as protective coatings for sensor wafers. The inventors have determined that rare earth oxides represent one possible class of materials from which such a suitable coating might be fabricated. Rare earth oxides have been used to coat parts of a plasma etch chamber to make them etch resistant. Typically Al, Al2O3 or stainless are coated with such rare earth oxides. U.S. Pat. No. 6,776,873 discloses a high purity coating of yttrium oxide (Y2O3 also known as yttria) provided on anodized aluminum alloy parts or a high purity aluminum substrate to enhance the chamber material performance of anodized aluminum alloy materials against fluorine and oxygen plasma attack for semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) processing vacuum chambers.
Yttria coatings are typically applied by a plasma spray process. In plasma spraying process, the material to be deposited (feedstock) is introduced into a plasma jet, emanating from a plasma torch. The feedstock is typically a powder, and sometimes a liquid, suspension, or wire. In the plasma jet, where the temperature is on the order of 10,000 K, the feedstock material melts and is propelled towards a substrate. There, molten droplets of the material flatten, rapidly solidify, and form a deposit. Commonly, the deposits remain adherent to the substrate as coatings. A large number of technological parameters influence the interaction of the particles with the plasma jet and the substrate and therefore the deposit properties. These parameters include feedstock type, plasma gas composition and flow rate, energy input, torch offset distance, substrate cooling, etc.
Unfortunately, the coatings produced by plasma spraying are too thick and prone to particle generation to be useful as a wafer coating. Furthermore, there is no contamination data on yttria coated silicon wafers. Also, yttria-coated parts are not normally subjected to deliberate plasma bombardment in an etch chamber. Usually, the plasma in an etch chamber is confined in such a way that, during a normal etch process, only the wafer is subject to ion bombardment and chemical attack from the plasma. The coating is used to protect the chamber from attack during a chamber cleaning process. However, chamber cleaning does not involve energetic ion bombardment of the chamber parts and instead relies on reactive chemistry that is enhanced by the plasma.
To overcome the disadvantages of the prior art, embodiments of the present invention include a sensor wafer having a substrate and a cover with an etch-resistant rare earth oxide protective coating on its upper surface. The coating is configured to resist etching by etch processes that etch the cover and/or substrate for a longer period than standard thin film materials of the same or greater thickness than the protective coating. The coating may be formed by evaporative deposition, which is commonly used for making optical coatings on SiO2. Alternatively, the etch-resistant coating may be formed with other methods such as physical vapor deposition (PVD), organometallic chemical vapor deposition (CVD), plasma processes, laser ablation, or other standard IC fabrication film deposition processes.
Examples of standard thin film materials include silicon oxide, polyimide, spin-on polyimide, silicon nitride, spin-on glass, photoresist, aluminum nitride, titanium nitride, and the like.
Embodiments
In this illustrative example, the sensor wafer 100 includes a substrate 102, e.g., a silicon wafer with various layers formed upon the wafer. Cavities 104 are formed on a top portion of the substrate 102. Components 106 can be embedded into the cavities 104 as shown in
By measuring in different areas of the substrate, the gradient across the substrate can be calculated, and additionally, the condition at a particular location on the substrate can be determined The number of sensors in or on the substrate 102 may vary depending upon the processing condition being measured and the size of the substrate 102. By way of example, and not by way of limitation, a 200 mm diameter substrate may have 55 sensors for measuring temperature, whereas a 300 mm diameter substrate may have 65 sensors. The sensors can be configured to detect various processing conditions and may be mounted on or fabricated in substrate 102 according to well known semiconductor transducer designs. In embodiments of the present invention, the sensors may be configured for use in detecting etching parameters of an etch plasma during a plasma etch process.
For measuring temperature, a popular transducer is an RTD or thermistor, which includes a thin-film resistor material having a known temperature coefficient of resistance. A magneto-resistive material may also be used to measure the temperature through the amount of magnetic flux exerted upon substrate 102. A resistance-to-voltage converter can be formed within the substrate 102 between distal ends of the resistive-sensitive material (either thermistor or magneto-resistive material) so that the voltage may easily be correlated with a temperature scale. Another possible temperature sensor includes a thermocouple made of two dissimilar conductors lithographically formed in the layers of the substrate 102. When a junction between the conductors is heated, a small thermoelectric voltage is produced which increases in some known way (e.g., approximately linearly) with junction temperature. Another example of a temperature sensor includes a diode that produces a voltage drop that increases with temperature. By connecting the diode between a positive supply and a load resistor, current-to-voltage conversion can be obtained from the load resistor.
Another possible type of sensor is a piezoelectric device such as a quartz tuning fork fabricated from a quartz crystal cut on a crystal orientation that exhibits a temperature dependent frequency of oscillation. The sensor's oscillating frequency can be referenced against a master oscillator formed by a piezoelectric device such as a quartz tuning fork, which is fabricated from a crystal oriented to minimize frequency change with temperature. The frequency difference between the sensor and master oscillator would provide a direct temperature dependent signal. Piezoelectric sensors may also be used to sense mass change to measure deposition mass and rates or other process conditions.
The sensors may also be used to measure pressure, force or strain at select regions across the substrate 102, either as a discrete sensor or a sensor integrally formed in the layers of the substrate 102. There are many types of pressure transducers capable of measuring the atmospheric pressure exerted upon the wafer. A suitable pressure transducer includes a diaphragm-type transducer in which a diaphragm or elastic element senses pressure and produces a corresponding strain or deflection that can then be read by a bridge circuit connected to the diaphragm or a cavity behind the diaphragm. Another suitable pressure transducer may include a piezoresistive material placed within the substrate 102. The piezoresistive material can be formed by diffusing doping compounds into selected portions of the substrate 102. The resulting piezoresistive material produces output current proportional to the amount of pressure or strain exerted thereupon.
The sensors may also be used to measure flow rate across substrate 102. In addition, humidity and moisture sensors can also be formed upon substrate 102. A well-known method for measuring flow rate, a hot-wire anemometer, may be incorporated into the substrate 102. Fluid velocity is based upon the frequency of vortex production as a streamlined fluidic flow strikes a non-streamlined obstacle positioned on or in the substrate 102. Measurement of fluid flow generally involves the formation of special vortices on either side of the obstacle. Thus, an alternating pressure difference occurs between the two sides. Above a threshold (below which no vortex production occurs), the frequency of alternation of the pressure difference is proportional to fluid velocity. Of many methods of detecting the alternating pressure difference, a hot thermistor can be placed in a small channel between the two sides of the obstacle. The alternating directions of flow through the capitalized channel periodically cool the self-heated thermistor thereby producing an AC signal and corresponding electric pulses at twice the vortex frequency. Therefore, an obstacle protruding from the substrate 102 in front of a thermistor can provide solid-state flow rate measurement. Heat can be transferred between self-heated thermistors placed in close proximity to each other. Fluid flow transfers thermal energy between the adjacent thermistors causing a thermal imbalance proportional to mass flow. Two or more adjacent sensors can be arrayed to measure flow along a vector, or multiple flow vectors may also be sensed. The thermal imbalance can be detected to produce a DC signal related to mass flow. Flows in multiple directions can be compared to detect flow vectors.
The sensors can also be used to measure the gaseous chemical concentration placed upon the substrate 102. Chemical composition sensors utilize a membrane which is permeable to specific ions to be measured. Ideally, the membrane should be completely impermeable to all other ions. The conductivity of the membrane is directly proportional to the transport of select ions which have permeated the membrane. Given the variability of membrane conductivity, measurements can be taken which directly correlate to the amount of chemical ions present within the ambient surrounding the substrate 102.
The sensors may also be used to measure ion current density and ion current energy with a parallel plate structure, an array of collecting plates, and collecting plates with control grids supported above the collecting plates. The current flowing between parallel plates, or to the array of collecting plates, will increase with ion current density. Ion current energy can be detected by applying a constant or varying DC potential on the grids above the plates, allowing the energy distribution to be characterized. This is useful in monitoring and regulating a deposition or etching process.
A piezoelectric transducer/sensor may also be integrated into the substrate 102 to measure the resonant frequency of a layer and thus determine the mass or thickness of the layer.
Additionally, the sensors can also be used to detect a change in position or displacement of an object spaced from the substrate 102. Exemplary displacement transducers include electro-optical devices which can measure photon energy (or intensity) and convert photon energy to an electric field or voltage. Relatively well known electro-optical devices include light-emitting diodes, photodiodes, phototransistors, etc., which can be formed upon a semiconductor substrate or embedded within the substrate or placed on the surface. Displacement sensors are used to provide accurate information about electrode spacing within an etch chamber or deposition chamber, and can also provide spacing information between a wafer and corresponding masks and/or radiation source.
The sensor wafer 100 can be configured for silicon etch applications in IC manufacturing. Examples of these silicon etch applications include Poly Etch, STI Etch, TSV Etch. The purpose of the sensor wafer is to measure temperature in-situ during plasma etch. Critical requirements of such a sensor wafer configuration are at least 10-hr lifetime in silicon etch environments, maintaining wafer flatness and temperature stability during the etch process and throughout the life of the film, and acceptable particles contamination levels as measured by OEM/fab transfer tests. In such a case, the cover 108 and substrate 102 may be made of silicon.
A number of variations on the embodiment depicted in
It is desirable for the coating 110 to be non-contaminating. For example, certain films, such as aluminum oxide (Al2O3), aluminum nitride (AlN), and titanium nitride (TiN) would probably lead to contamination. It is preferably that the coating 110 does not contain contaminating metals. As used herein, the term contaminating metals includes metals that are unacceptable for semiconductor processing cleanliness reasons. Examples of contaminating metals include copper, aluminum, sodium, calcium, potassium, titanium, gold, copper, platinum, and transition metals.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the protective coating 110 can be a rare earth oxide film, such as Y2O3 film deposited on top of the cover layer 108, which can be made of silicon. It is generally desirable that the protective coating 110 is sufficiently thin that it does not crack during handling and use. It is also generally desirable for the coating 110 to be non-thermally perturbing. As used herein, the expression “non-thermally perturbing” means that the temperature of the wafer does not deviate by a significant amount from what it would be if the coating were not present. This is largely a function of the thickness of the film 110. By way of example, the protective coating 110 may be approximately 2 microns or less, preferably 1.5 microns or less, still more preferably, 1.2 microns or less in thickness. The film may also cover the side edge of the sensor wafer 100 and a portion of the back surface, e.g., within a few millimeters of the edge. The film can be deposited by e-beam evaporation with the surface being coated at a temperature in a range from room temperature to 250° C.
As shown in
To form a uniform coating 214, the sensor wafer can be rotated about Y-axis. The sensor wafer 208 can also be tilted at a sufficient angle about an X-axis as it rotates to allow the coating 214 to form at the vertical side, top and bottom bevels and the edges of the back surface.
Protection of the side edge and backside of the sensor wafer are optional. In some cases, the backside of the sensor wafer near the edge may be subject to etching if the sensor wafer slightly overhangs an edge of a chuck that secures the wafer in the etch chamber. The protective coating on the backside within a few millimeters of the edge can be useful, e.g., if the etching of the backside would interfere with handling of the sensor wafer.
Experiments
Experiments have been done with sensor wafers having silicon covers. The covers were coated with different types of protective film. The films included a rare earth oxide (Y2O3) and some standard films, such as silicon oxide (e.g., SiO2), Kapton, and spin-on polyimide. Kapton refers to a polymer having the chemical formula poly(4,4′-oxydiphenylene-pyromellitimide). Kapton is a Trademark of E. I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company of Wilmington, Del. The films were studied for etch rate, wafer warpage, film effect on wafer temperature range and accuracy and metallic contamination. The coatings had similar performance with respect to wafer warpage, film effect on wafer temperature range and accuracy and metallic contamination under the same etch conditions. However, there was a significant different in the etch rate. A lifetime for each film was estimated by dividing the measured etch rate by the measured film thickness. The only film with an estimated lifetime greater than 10 hours was the Y2O3 film, which, at 1.5 microns thick, was also the thinnest film tested. The etch rate for this film was undetectable, which would suggest a lifetime substantially greater than 10 hours and substantially greater than any of the other films. The next best film (2-micron thick SiO2), was estimated to last less than 5 hours. The 50-micron thick Kapton film was estimated to last approximately 3 hours and the 2-micron thick spin-on polyimide was estimated to last less than 15 minutes.
A sensor wafer with a 1.5 micron thick Y2O3 coating film was used in a Prototype Test in a typical poly etch reactor with HBr Chemistry. The prototype test was performed in typical HBr poly etch recipe.
Test results showed that the chamber temperature variance between silicon sensor wafers with and without Y2O3 coating film was within measurement noise. Thus, the presence of the coating does not have a significant effect on the temperature measured by the sensors and the coating can be said to be non-thermally perturbing. The observed etch rate of Y2O3 coating film was minimal to none. There was no significant sensor-to-sensor temperature variation ΔT among sensor wafers with and without the Y2O3 coating film. Furthermore, the sensor to sensor wafer temperature was stable over the course of the test with the plasma on, and no sign of Y2O3 film degradation or erosion under different plasma etch processes has been detected. These test results were similar to a prototype test in a typical STI (shallow trench isolation) etch reactor using sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) etch chemistry.
The performance of a Y2O3-coated sensor wafer exceeded expectations. There were no signs of erosion of the film. However, it has been observed that the sensor wafer is subject to erosion if there are pinholes in the protective coating. The presence of pinholes is believed to be due to lack of cleanliness of the wafer surface. Such defects are believed to include particles, scratches, and regions of contamination that would prevent nucleation of the film and lead to a non-uniform coating. It is believed that the size of the defects determines the size of the pinholes in the subsequent coating. Pinhole defects may be reduced or possibly eliminated by cleaning the wafer prior to coating and then inspecting the wafer to determine whether any defects are present on the surface of the wafer that are larger than some acceptable maximum size or present in some greater-than-acceptable concentration. For example, the wafer surface may be scanned for defects using a standard wafer inspection tool. The acceptable maximum size and concentration of the pinholes may vary depending on the etch process. By way of example, for Y2O3 film approximately 1.2 μm thick subjected to an aggressive etch with sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) an acceptable maximum size for the pinholes may be 10 μm and the maximum acceptable concentration may be 45 pinholes per 25 mm×25 mm square (roughly 7 pinholes per square centimeter). An example of an aggressive etch with SF6 would be a plasma etch at a power of approximately 600 W TCP with a 500 V bias, a pressure of 20 milliTorr and gas flow rates of 125 SCCM for Chlorine (Cl2), 15 SCCM for Oxygen (O2), 15 SCCM for SF6 and 50 SCCM for Helium (He).
To reduce the size and concentration of pinholes (particularly near the edge), the sensor wafer cover can be specially cleaned and handled before forming the etch-resistant coating to remove particles and/or organic contaminants.
The upper surface of the cover is pre-cleaned as indicated at 304 to reduce pinhole concentration and pinhole size. By way of example, the upper surface of the cover may be cleaned by any standard techniques used to remove organic contaminants and/or particles. After pre-cleaning, the upper surface of the cover may be actively cleaned, e.g., with a plasma or fast neutral beam, as indicated at 306. Once cleaned, the upper surface of the cover can be coated with a protective coating, as indicated at 308. Specifically, the upper surface may be coated with a rare earth oxide, such as Y2O3 by evaporation or physical vapor deposition. The coating may be approximately 1.15 μm thick, e.g., between 1.1 μm and 1.2 μm thick. Experiments have shown that such a coating thickness is sufficiently thin to avoid formation of cracks.
After the cover has been cleaned, the wafer cover can be attached to the upper surface of the substrate, as indicated at 310. Any suitable wafer bonding process may be used to secure the cover in place with the sensors between the upper surface of the substrate and the cover. The coated upper surface of the cover forms the upper surface of the resulting sensor wafer. To reduce pinhole formation during fabrication, the cover may be handled at the edge only during fabrication and contact with the surface of the cover may be avoided during attachment of the cover to the substrate and other processing.
The exact sequence of fabrication of the substrate and the cover is not particularly important so long as the sensors are in place by the time the cover is attached to the substrate. The thickness of the substrate and the cover may be selected so that the finished sensor wafer has roughly the same thickness as a standard production wafer that is processed in the etch chamber that the sensor wafer is to be used to monitor. In some embodiments, the cover can be coated after attachment to the wafer. This allows the side edges and backside edge exclusion zone to be coated along with the front surface of the wafer cover.
A sensor wafer fabricated as described above, may be used to characterize processes within a plasma etch chamber used for etching silicon. The sensor wafer described herein can alternatively be used in Poly Etch chamber process characterization or wet etch, e.g., KOH characterization.
While the above is a complete description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to use various alternatives, modifications and equivalents. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should be determined not with reference to the above description but should, instead, be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with their full scope of equivalents. Any feature described herein, whether preferred or not, may be combined with any other feature described herein, whether preferred or not. In the claims that follow, the indefinite article “A”, or “An” refers to a quantity of one or more of the item following the article, except where expressly stated otherwise. The appended claims are not to be interpreted as including means-plus-function limitations, unless such a limitation is explicitly recited in a given claim using the phrase “means for.”
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