The present invention relates to a wafer alignment apparatus, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for detecting positions of wafers.
Generally, before a wafer enters a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, a wafer aligner is used for eccentricity correction, that is, the wafer is placed on a rotation table of the wafer aligner, and an aiming procedure is performed to align the center of the wafer with the center of rotation of the rotation table.
Japanese grant patent No. 2729297 discloses an apparatus for centering a semiconductor wafer. The apparatus includes a rotation table for holding the wafer, and a detector composed of a light projector and a light receiver. This apparatus drives, by a driving device, the rotation table, on which the wafer is placed, to rotate one cycle at a faster speed, and controls the detector to roughly detect the change in the outer contour of the wafer in a non-contact manner while the wafer is rotating, so as to find out the location of the notch on the outer contour of the wafer. Then, the rotation table is driven to rotate so that the notch of the outer contour returns to the edge of the detection area of the detector, and then the rotation table is driven to rotate at a lower speed while the detector detects the change in the contour of the notch in detail. Finally, the apparatus calculates the eccentric quantity, the eccentric direction, and the orientation of the center of the notch based on the accumulated detection results.
Japanese grant patent No. 3223584 discloses an apparatus and method for centering a semiconductor wafer. First, this apparatus drives the rotation table to rotate one round and controls the detector to detect the periphery of the wafer placed on the rotation table. Then, the rotation table is driven to rotate by 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees in sequence while the detector is controlled to detect the periphery of the wafer. Finally, according to the accumulated detection results, the eccentric quantity, the eccentric direction, and the orientation of the notch center are calculated.
Japanese grant patent No. 4226241 discloses a device and method of wafer positioning. Similarly, the wafer positioning apparatus also drives the rotation table to rotate 360 degrees, and controls the line sensor to detect the periphery of the wafer placed on the rotation table. Then, according to the detection result of the line sensor and the rotation angle of the rotation table, the degree of deviation of the center of the wafer from the rotation center of the rotating table and the orientation of the notch are calculated.
However, these existing methods of detecting the position deviation of the wafer all need to detect the complete periphery of the wafer to calculate the degree of deviation of the center of the wafer from the rotation center of the rotation table and the orientation of the notch, so it is quite time-consuming and is unfavorable for batches of wafers to undergo subsequent processes.
One objective of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for detecting positions of wafers by detecting a part of the periphery of the wafer to know the eccentric position of the wafer.
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for detecting positions of wafers, comprises the following steps: placing the wafer on a rotating table, and a periphery of the wafer including an aiming feature; driving, by a controller, the rotation table to rotate in a first direction at a first speed, so as to drive the wafer to rotate in the first direction at the first speed; detecting, by a detector, the periphery of the wafer rotating in the first direction at the first speed to provide contour data, corresponding to a respective currently-detected position on the periphery, to the controller; when the controller, according to the contour data, determines that the aiming feature passes the detector in the first direction, by the controller, driving the rotation table to rotate in a second direction at a second speed to drive the wafer to rotate in the second direction at the second rotation speed, and the second direction being opposite to the first direction; detecting, by the detector, the periphery of the wafer rotating in the second direction at the second rotation speed to provide new contour data, corresponding to a respective currently-detected position on the periphery, to the controller; and when the controller, according to the contour data, determines that the aiming feature passes the detector in the second direction, by the controller, controlling the rotation table to stop rotating, and according to an accumulation of contour data and rotation angles corresponding to the accumulation of contour data, estimating an eccentric position of the wafer and a position of the aiming feature.
According to one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus for detecting positions of wafers, comprises: a rotation table for carrying the wafer, and a periphery of the wafer including an aiming feature; a detector arranged near the rotating table; and a controller electrically connected to the rotation table and the detector and configured for executing a method of detecting the position of the wafer, and the method of detecting the position of the wafer including: driving, by the controller, the rotation table to rotate in a first direction at a first speed, so as to drive the wafer to rotate in the first direction at the first speed; detecting, by the detector, the periphery of the wafer rotating in the first direction at the first speed to provide contour data, corresponding to a respective currently-detected position on the periphery, to the controller; when the controller, according to the contour data, determines that the aiming feature passes the detector in the first direction, by the controller, driving the rotation table to rotate in a second direction at a second speed to drive the wafer to rotate in the second direction at the second rotation speed, and the second direction being opposite to the first direction; detecting, by the detector, the periphery of the wafer rotating in the second direction at the second rotation speed to provide new contour data, corresponding to a respective currently-detected position on the periphery, to the controller; and when the controller, according to the contour data, determines that the aiming feature passes the detector in the second direction, by the controller, controlling the rotation table to stop rotating, and according to an accumulation of contour data and rotation angles corresponding to the accumulation of contour data, estimating an eccentric position of the wafer and a position of the aiming feature.
In this way, the method for detecting positions of wafers and apparatus using this method provided by the present invention only need to detect a part of the periphery of the wafer to obtain a detection result within an acceptable error range. Therefore, the time required for detection can be greatly reduced
After studying the detailed description in conjunction with the following drawings, other aspects and advantages of the present invention will be discovered:
In the following detailed description, many specific details are explained in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the present invention can be practiced without these specific details. In other cases, well-known methods, procedures and/or elements have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the present invention.
Please refer to
The rotation table 12 is used to carry a wafer 20. The rotation table 12 is controlled by the controller 15 to rotate at different speeds and rotate in a first direction (for example, clockwise) and in a second direction (for example, counterclockwise). The first direction is opposite to the second direction. The rotation of the rotation table 12 can drive the wafer 20 placed on the rotation table 12 to rotate at the same speed and direction.
The moving platform 13 includes a first moving mechanism 131 and a second moving mechanism 132. The first moving mechanism 131 and the second moving mechanism 132 are movably disposed to the base 11. The first moving mechanism 131 can move in a third direction (for example, the X-axis direction), and the second moving mechanism 132 can move in a fourth direction (for example, the Y-axis direction), and the third direction is perpendicular to the fourth direction. Therefore, when the rotation table 12 is arranged to the moving platform 13, the first moving mechanism 131 and the second moving mechanism 132 can work together to move the rotation table 12 in the third direction, the fourth direction, or both on a plane.
The detector 14 is arranged near the rotation table 12. The detector 14 can be, for example, an optical detector, such as at least one light emitter and at least one light receiver that work together to detect the contour of the periphery 21 of the wafer 20. The detector 14 has a detection coverage 141. Taking the example of the detector 14 implemented by a light emitter and a light receiver, the detection coverage 141 can be, for example, the area covered by the detecting light between the light emitter and the light receiver. In order to let the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14 cover a part of the periphery 21 of the wafer 20 so that the detector 14 can detect the contour of the periphery 21 of the wafer 20, the controller 15 can control the movement of at least one of the first moving mechanism 131 and the second moving mechanism 132 of the moving platform 13 so that the rotation table 12 arranged on the moving platform 13 can approach the detector 14, and then the periphery 21 of the wafer 20 on the rotation table 12 can enter the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14. For example, as shown in
The storage apparatus 16 is used to store various program instructions, parameters, and thresholds required for the operation of the system 10 for detecting the wafer position, and for the controller 15 to access and then execute the method for detecting the wafer position.
The following will illustrate how the system 10 for detecting positions of wafers executes the method of detecting positions of wafers. Please further refer to
First, place a wafer 20 on the rotation table 12, as shown in step S1 and
While the rotation table 12 is rotating, the controller 15 controls the detector 14 to detect the contour of the periphery 21 of the wafer 20 rotating at the first rotation speed V1 in the first direction D1, so as to generate contour data corresponding to a respective currently-detected position on the periphery 21, and send this contour data to the controller 15, as shown in step S3. In addition, the controller 15 records a current rotation angle of the rotation table 12 when the respective contour data is obtained, as shown in step S4. The contour data is related to the relative distance from the periphery 21 of the wafer 20 to the rotation center of the rotation table 12.
Then, the controller 15 determines whether the aiming feature 22 has passed the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14 according to the obtained contour data, as in step S5. The method of determining whether the aiming feature 22 has passed the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14 according to the obtained contour data is illustrated as follows. Please refer to
Then, every time an instantaneous variation is obtained, the controller 15 will further determine whether the instantaneous variation is greater than or equal to a measurement threshold, as shown in step S502. The measurement threshold value is a preset value, and represents that the currently-detected position on the edge 21 of the wafer 20 is the position of the aiming feature 22. When the instantaneous variation is greater than or equal to the measurement threshold, the controller 15 determines that the aiming feature 22 has passed the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14, as shown in step S503 and
When the controller 15 determines that the aiming feature 22 of the wafer 20 has not yet passed the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14, the controller 15 will return to step S2 and repeat steps S2 to S5 until the aiming feature 22 has passed the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14 in step S5.
In step S5, when the aiming feature 22 passes the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14, the controller 15 further drives the rotation table 12 to rotate in a second direction D2 at a second speed V2, as shown in step S6, so that the wafer 20 is also rotated at the same speed and in the same direction, as shown in
In addition, the controller 15 will also determine whether the aiming feature 22 passes the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14 again according to the obtained contour data, as shown in step S9. For the method of determining whether the aiming feature 22 passes the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14 again, please refer to the above description of step S5, and its related description is omitted herein. Alternatively, the method of determining whether the aiming feature 22 passes through the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14 again can also be determined by determining whether the rotation angle θ of the rotation table 12 under the conditions of the second rotation speed V2 and the second direction D2 is greater than or equal to a second angle threshold.
When the aiming feature 22 has not yet passed the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14, return to step S6, and repeat steps S6 to S9 until the aiming feature 22 passes the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14. When the aiming feature 22 passes the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14, the controller 15 estimates the current total measured angle AT, as in step S10. The total measured angle AT can, for example, refer to the angle corresponding to the range detected on the periphery 21 of the wafer 20 by the detector 14 while the rotation table 12 is rotating. Therefore, the controller 15 can calculate the total measured angle AT based on the rotation angle corresponding to the accumulation of contour data.
Then, the controller 15 further determines whether the total measured angle AT is greater than or equal to a first angle threshold, as shown in step S11. The first angle threshold may be a preset value, for example, the angle corresponding to the data volume of the contour data required to calculate the deviation amount under an acceptable error range, and the data volume is based on the specification of the wafer 20, that is, the first angle threshold is, in order to calculate the deviation within the acceptable error range, the angle corresponding to the range, which the detector 14 should detect, on the periphery 21 of the wafer 20. The first angle threshold is less than 360 degrees.
When the current total measured angle AT is greater than or equal to the first angle threshold, it means that the data volume (or the total number) of the current accumulation of contour data is sufficient to calculate the deviation within the error range. At this time, the controller 15 can control the rotation table 12 to stop rotating and the detector 14 to stop detecting, as in step S16. Conversely, when the current total measured angle AT is less than the first angle threshold, it means that the data volume of the current accumulation of contour data is still insufficient to calculate the deviation within the error range, and the shortage of data volume needs to be made up at this time. To this end, in this embodiment or other embodiments, the system 10 for detecting positions of wafers may further provide one or more compensation schemes for the controller 15 to choose. At this time, the controller 15 can pre-estimate the time required to execute a respective compensation scheme according to the current total measured angle AT and the preset first angle threshold, as shown in step S12. Then, the controller 15 selects a time-saving compensation scheme according to the estimated result, as shown in step S13; and executes the selected compensation scheme, as shown in step S14, to make up the shortage of data volume. Two compensation schemes are listed below as examples to illustrate.
Please refer to
The time required to execute the first compensation scheme can be estimated by the following formula (1), for example:
T1=C1′/V1+(C1−C1′)/V1+Δt1 (1)
where T1 represents the time required to execute the first compensation scheme; C1 represents the target data volume; C1′ represents the currently-accumulated data volume; V1 represents the first rotation speed used when the periphery 21 is roughly detected; and Δt1 represents the time required for the transition of the rotation table 12 from rotating under the conditions of the second rotation speed V2 and the second direction D2 to rotate under the conditions of the first rotation speed V1 and the first direction D1.
Please refer to
The time required to execute the second compensation scheme can be estimated by the following formula (2), for example:
T2=C1′/V1+C1/V1+Δt2 (2)
where T2 represents the time required to execute the second compensation scheme; C1 represents the target data volume; C1′ represents the currently-accumulated data volume; V1 represents the first rotation speed used when the periphery 21 is roughly detected; and Δt2 is the time required for the transition of the rotation table 12 from rotating under the conditions of the second rotation speed V2 and the second direction D2 to rotate under the conditions of the first rotation speed V1 and the second direction D2.
Therefore, the controller 15 can estimate the time required to execute each compensation scheme based on the current total measured angle AT (i.e., the sum of the measured angles) and the first angle threshold, that is, the currently-accumulated data volume and the target data volume, and chooses a more time-saving compensation scheme based on the estimated result.
In this embodiment or other embodiments, when only one compensation scheme is provided, the above steps S12 to S13 can be omitted, that is, in step S11, when the total measured angle AT is smaller than the first angle threshold, the controller 15 directly executes this compensation scheme.
After obtaining the updated total measured angle AT, the controller 15 determines whether the updated total measured angle AT is greater than or equal to the first angle threshold, as shown in step S15. When the updated total measured angle AT is still less than the first angle threshold, return to step S14 and repeat steps S14 to S15 until the updated total measured angle AT is greater than or equal to the first angle threshold.
When the updated total measured angle AT in step S15 is greater than or equal to the first angle threshold, it means that the currently-accumulated data volume has reached the target data volume, and the controller 15 can control the rotation table 12 to stop rotating and the detector 14 to stop detecting, as shown in step S16. At this time, the controller 15 can estimate the eccentric position of the wafer 20 and the position of the aiming feature 22 according to the accumulation of contour data and the rotation angles corresponding thereto, as shown in step S17.
An example for estimating the eccentric position of the wafer 20 and the position of the aiming feature 22 is as follows. Please refer to
where Xi represents the X coordinate of the i-th mapping; Yi represents the Y coordinate of the i-th mapping; Si represents the i-th contour data generated by the detector 14 detecting the periphery; and θi represents the rotation angle of the rotation table 12 when the i-th detection data is obtained.
Next, the controller 15 converts the two-dimensional information into a circular curve as shown in any one of
Err=Σ
i=1
n{(Xi−ΔX)2+(Yi−ΔY)2−R2}2 (4)
where n represents the amount of instantaneous variations; Xi represents the X coordinate of the i-th instantaneous variation; Yi represents the Y coordinate of the i-th instantaneous variation; ΔX represents the deviation of the center on the X axis; ΔY represents the deviation of the center on the Y axis; and R represents the radius of the circular curve. After forming the circular curve, the controller 15 can calculate the center of the circular curve as the eccentric position of the wafer 20, as shown in step S1703.
Next, the controller 15 defines a minimum contour data among the accumulation of contour data as the contour data of the pole 23 of the aiming feature 22, as shown in step S1704. Finally, the controller 15 can calculate the position of the aiming feature 22 based on the position of the center of the circular curve and the position, corresponding to the contour data of the pole 23 of the aiming feature 22, on the circular curve, as shown in step S1705.
In this way, the wafer aligner can estimate the deviation of the center of the wafer 20 and the angular deviation of the aiming feature 22 according to the eccentric position of the wafer 20, the position of the aiming feature 22, and the position of the rotation center of the rotation table 12, to further compensate for these deviations, so that the center of the wafer 20 is aligned with the rotation center of the rotation table 12.
In addition, in this embodiment, the method of obtaining the above-mentioned measurement threshold ET and the first angle threshold can be, for example, by the existing method of detecting positions of wafers, such as Japanese grant patent No. 2729297, Japanese grant patent No. 3223584, and Japanese grant patent No. 4226241 or other existing methods to perform edge detection on the entire periphery of a wafer template to obtain results. The wafer template used is the same wafer as the wafer 20 described above, so this wafer template has the same periphery 21 and the same aiming feature 22.
After detecting the complete periphery 21 of the wafer template, the controller 15 can calculate the instantaneous variation of each contour data, and select at least one peak value from these instantaneous variations, such as the peak values of the peak P1 and peak P2 in
At this time, since the total number of pieces of contour data generated by detecting the entire periphery 21 of the wafer template is already known, the controller 15 can perform different tests according to the accumulation of contour data, the acceptable error range (for example, ±0.1 mm), and the specification of the wafer template (for example, the specification of a 12-inch wafer), to estimate the data volume ratio required to calculate the position of the eccentric center within the error range. Then, the controller 15 estimates the first angle threshold according to the data volume ratio. For example, as shown in Table 1, experimental tests are performed based on the same wafer template and the detection process of steps S1 to S9 in
It can be known from the above test results that: we can repeatedly test out the minimum data volume ratio within the allowable error range based on the same wafer template, and draw up different periphery measurement plans based on different data volume ratios, that is, different first angle thresholds. For example, the first angle threshold of 84.96 degrees (360×23.5%=84.96) and the first angle threshold of 126 degrees (360×35%=126) are drawn up based on data volume ratios of 23.5% and 35% respectively for testers to choose. After one of the first angle thresholds is selected, when subsequently detecting each wafer 20 with the same specifications as the wafer template, the controller 15 can directly detect the periphery 21 of the wafer 20 based on the setting of the first angle threshold.
In the same way, since the above-mentioned second angle threshold is related to the angle required for the aiming feature 22 of the wafer 20 to rotate from one side of the detection coverage 141 of the detector 14 to the opposite side, it is also possible to sum up the second angle threshold that allows the error of the calculation result of the eccentric position to be within the allowable error range through repeated tests on the same wafer template.
Although the above-mentioned embodiment is described by taking the first rotation speed V1 greater than the second rotation speed V2 as an example, the present invention is not limited to this. In other embodiments of the present invention, the first rotation speed V1 may be substantially equal to the second rotation speed V2, and the rotation direction in the compensation scheme used to make up the data volume may be adjusted according to the design of the rotation speed to provide more compensation schemes or more efficient compensation schemes.
In summary, the method and apparatus for detecting positions of wafers provided by the present invention is to rotate the wafer at a faster first rotation speed and detect the periphery of the wafer, and then, when the aiming feature of the circle passes through the detection coverage of the detector, the wafer is then reversed at a slower second speed to detect the periphery of the wafer, and when the aiming feature passes through the detection coverage of the detector again, the eccentric position of the wafer and the position of the aiming feature can be estimated based on the accumulated detection results and the rotation angle of the rotating table. Since the wafer does not need to rotate for a full circle, the coverage of the detector to repeatedly detect the periphery can be reduced, so that the time required for detection can be greatly shortened, and the overall efficiency of the wafer manufacturing process can be improved. In addition, the present invention further provides one or more compensation schemes, so that the data volume required to calculate the eccentric position of the wafer and the position of the aiming feature can be kept sufficient. In addition, the present invention further provides the data volume ratio of the data to be collected corresponding to different calculation accuracy as an option for the periphery measurement scheme, and no matter which option it is, the calculated deviation of the center of the wafer and the angular deviation of the aiming feature can still be maintained within an acceptable error range.
Although the present invention is disclosed as above in the foregoing embodiments, these embodiments are not intended to limit the present invention. Without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, all changes, modifications, and combinations of various implementation modes are within the scope of patent protection of the present invention. For the scope of protection defined by the present invention, please refer to the attached claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
109128544 | Aug 2020 | TW | national |