Thin films measurement method and system

Abstract

A method and system are presented for use in controlling the processing of a structure. First measured data is provided being indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness (d2) of at least one layer (L2) of the structure W in at least selected sites of the structure prior to the processing of the structure, and a surface profile of the structure prior to said processing. An optical measurement is applied to at least the selected sites of the structure after said processing and second measured data is generated being indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness of the processed structure (d′) and a surface profile of the processed structure, The second measured data is analyzed by interpreting it using the first measured data to thereby determine a thickness (d′1 or d′2) of at least one layer of the processed structure. This determined thickness is thus indicative of the quality of said processing.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This invention is generally in the field of optical measurement techniques, and relates to a method and system for thin-film (layers) measurements. The present invention is particularly useful for process control in the manufacture of semiconductor devices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Integrated circuits are multi-layer structures produced by applying a sequence of layer-deposition and patterning processes to a semiconductor wafer. Various steps in the manufacture of semiconductor devices require measurements of thickness or other characteristics (e.g., optical parameters) of each layer in the multi-layer wafer structure.

[0003] Optical methods for on-line or integrated measurement of the parameters of dielectric films (e.g., film thickness) are known in the art. Most of these techniques are based on reflectometry in a broadened spectral range, e.g. ranging from DUV to NIR spectral range.

[0004] In order to determine the parameters of the uppermost layer in the wafer stack (e.g., thickness of this layer), it is especially important to determine optical properties of each layer (film) of the actual stack after completing all the processing steps. Unfortunately, in cases when measurements are performed on the entire stack including different layers that similarly affect the spectral response of the stack, accurate determination of the properties of each separate layer are almost impossible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] There is accordingly a need in the art to facilitate measurements in a multi-layered structure, by providing a novel measuring method and system.

[0006] The inventors have found that performing measurements on a structure prior to applying a specific processing to the structure is advantageous and actually makes further measuring on the processed structure feasible. A metrology system aimed at controlling a process applied to the structure should thus be designed to be capable of using data obtained with the pre-processing measurements to sufficiently and accurately analyze the post-processing measurements on the same structure.

[0007] According to one broad aspect of the present invention, there is provided, a method for use in the controlling processing of a structure, the method comprising:

[0008] providing first measured data indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness of at least one layer of the structure in at least selected sites of the structure prior to said processing of the structure, and a surface profile of the structure prior to said processing;

[0009] applying optical measurements to at least said selected sites in the structure after said processing and generating second measured data indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness of the processed structure and a surface profile of the processed structure;

[0010] analyzing the second measured data by interpreting it using the first measured data to thereby determine a thickness of at least one layer of the processed structure, said determined thickness being indicative of the quality of said processing.

[0011] There are two basic types of data obtainable with the pre-processing measurement: “Discrimination” and “Complementary” data. In both cases, the pre-processing measurement on the same sites with the post measurement plus injection of the information are key issues to enable certain type of measurements with the required accuracy.

[0012] The first measured data is provided by applying said measurements to the structure prior to said processing, and may present reference data obtained while controlling a previous process applied to the structure.

[0013] According to another broad aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for use in controlling processing of a structure, the method comprising:

[0014] providing first optical spectral measured data indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness of at least one layer of the structure in at least selected sites of the structure prior to said processing of the structure, and a surface profile of the structure prior to said processing;

[0015] applying optical spectral measurements to at least said selected sites in the structure after said processing and generating second measured data indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness of the processed structure and a surface profile of the processed structure;

[0016] analyzing the second measured data by interpreting it using the first measured data to thereby determine a thickness of at least one layer of the processed structure, said determined thickness being indicative of the quality of said processing.

[0017] The process to be controlled may be a material removal process or a layer deposition process.

[0018] A method for use in controlling a material removal process applied to a multi-layer structure comprises:

[0019] providing first optical spectral measured data indicative of a thickness of an uppermost layer of the structure and a thickness of a layer underneath said uppermost layer in at least selected sites of the structure prior to said processing of the structure;

[0020] applying optical spectral measurements to at least said selected sites of the structure after said material removal processing of the structure, and generating second measured data indicative of a thickness of the processed structure;

[0021] analyzing the second measured data by interpreting it using the first measured data to thereby determine at least a thickness of said underneath layer in the processed structure, said determined thickness being indicative of the quality of said processing.

[0022] According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for use in controlling a layer deposition process applied to a structure comprises:

[0023] providing first optical spectral measured data indicative of a thickness of a first layer of said structure onto which a second layer is to be deposited;

[0024] applying optical spectral measurements to at least selected sites in the structure after said layer deposition processing of the structure, and generating second measured data indicative of a thickness of the processed structure;

[0025] analyzing the second measured data by interpreting it using the first measured data to thereby determine a thickness of the deposited layer.

[0026] According to another embodiment of the invention, a method for use in controlling a layer deposition process applied to a patterned layer of a structure comprises:

[0027] providing first optical spectral measured data indicative of a surface profile of said patterned layer of the structure onto which a second layer is to be deposited;

[0028] applying optical spectral measurements to at least selected sites in the structure after said layer deposition processing of the structure, and generating second measured data indicative of a surface profile of the processed structure;

[0029] analyzing the second measured data by interpreting it using the first measured data to thereby determine a thickness of the deposited layer.

[0030] According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided an optical system for use in controlling processing of a multi-layer structure, the system comprising:

[0031] an optical device comprising a light source arrangement, a light detector assembly, and a light directing assembly, the optical device being operable to apply optical measurements to the structure and generate data representative of light returned from the structure, said generated data being indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness of at least one layer of the structure, and a surface profile of the structure;

[0032] a control unit connectable to the optical device to operate said device and receive said generated data, said control unit having a memory utility for storing first measured data obtained from optical measurements applied to the structure prior to said processing, and having a processor utility preprogrammed to analyze second measured data obtained from the optical measurements applied to the structure after said processing, said analyzing of the second measured data including interpreting the second measured data using the first measured data to thereby determine a thickness of at least one layer of the processed structure, said determined thickness being indicative of the quality of said processing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0033] In order to understand the invention and to see how it may be carried out in practice, a preferred embodiment will now be described, by way of non-limiting example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0034] FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a system according to the invention for use in controlling processing of a multi-layer structure, such as a semiconductor wafer;

[0035] FIG. 2 exemplifies the construction of an optical device in the system of FIG. 1;

[0036] FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate one possible example of a process to be controlled by the technique of the present invention;

[0037] FIG. 4 presents a one-dimensional Merit Function (MF) plot, as MF vs. layer thickness in the structure of FIGS. 3A-3B;

[0038] FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of a method according to the invention;

[0039] FIG. 6 exemplifies the operational steps of a processor utility of the system according to the invention while processing and analyzing the first and second measured data obtained with respectively pre-process and after-process measurements; and

[0040] FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate another example of a process to be controlled by the technique of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0041] Referring to FIG. 1, there is schematically illustrated a system 10 of the present invention for controlling the processing of a multi-layer structure (e.g., semiconductor wafer) W by a processing tool 15A of a processing system 15. The system 10 comprises such main constructional parts as a measuring device (e.g., optical device) 12 and a control unit 14 connectable thereto. The control unit 14 is a computer system including inter alia a memory utility 14A and a data processing and analyzing utility 14B.

[0042] As shown in the specific but non-limiting example of FIG. 1, the system 10 is of the integrated type, is accommodated within the processing system 15 in the vicinity of the processing tool 15A, but outside the processing area defined by this tool. The control unit 14 is connectable to the processing tool (either directly or via a control unit of the processing system that operates this processing tool), and operates for analyzing measured data coming from the optical device 12 and generating an output indicative of the data analysis results to be used in operating the processing tool. The operation of the system 10 and its control unit 14 will be described further below.

[0043] The construction and operation of the optical device 12 do not form part of the present invention, and, generally, this device may be of any suitable design capable of providing accurate layer thickness measurements or topological profile measurements of a multi-layer structure. For example, the optical device may utilize spectrophotometric and imaging channels.

[0044] One specific but non-limiting example of such an optical device is that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,433, assigned to the assignee of the present application. This device implementation is schematically illustrated in FIG. 2. In this specific example, the optical device 12 utilizes a microscope-based spectrophotometer. The device comprises a light source arrangement 16, including a light emitting unit 16A and a condenser 16B; a detector assembly including a spectrophotometer 20A with its associated imaging optics 30A (e.g., relay lens) and an imaging detector 20B (e.g., CCD camera) with its associated imaging optics 30B (e.g., relay lens); and a light directing assembly 18. The latter defines spectrophotometric and imaging light propagation channels, and comprises a lens arrangement formed by an objective lens 22 and a focusing lens 24; a beam splitter 26; and a pinhole mirror 28.

[0045] Light from the light source 16A is provided (e.g., along an optical fiber) to the condenser 16B, which directs the light towards the beam splitter 26. The latter directs the light towards the wafer surface W via lenses 24 and 22.

[0046] Light returned (reflected or scattered) from the wafer is collected by objective 22 and focused by lens 24 onto the pinhole mirror 28. A portion of this light impinging onto the pinhole mirror 28 passes through the hole in this mirror and is focused by the relay lens 30A onto the spectrophotometer 20A. The other portion of light impinging onto the pinhole mirror 28 is reflected therefrom towards the relay lens 30B that focuses this light onto the CCD camera 20B. Since the pinhole is placed at the center of the image plane, which is the focal plane of the lens 24, it acts as an aperture stop, allowing only the collimated portion of the light beam to pass through. Thus, the pinhole drastically reduces any scattered light in the system. Relay lens 30A collects the light from the pinhole and provides it to spectrophotometer 20A. Furthermore, since the pinhole is located at the image plane of the optical imaging system (lenses 22 and 24), only that portion of the light, reflected from the wafer's surface, which is the size of the pinhole divided by the magnification will come through the pinhole. Relay lens 30B collects this light and focuses it onto the CCD camera 20B. The pinhole serves to locate the measurement spot in the image of the wafer. Since the pinhole allows light to pass through it, rather than being reflected toward the CCD camera 20B, the pinhole appears as a sharp dark point in the image produced by the lens 30B. Thus, when viewing the CCD image, the location of the measurement spot is immediately known, it being the location of the dark spot.

[0047] FIGS. 3A and 3B schematically illustrate one example of a process to be controlled while manufacturing multi-layer structures, such as semiconductor wafers. In this example, a wafer W is partly shown prior to and after a material removal process (polishing, e.g., CMP). In this specific example, monitoring STI (shallow trench isolation) is considered, and the wafer W includes three layers—Silicone Oxide (SiO2) layer L1, Silicon Nitride (Si3N4) layer L2 and Si layer L3 The processing consists in removing the uppermost layer material L1 from the upper surface of layer L2. As shown in FIG. 3B, the processed wafer W may have a thin layer of SiO2 residuals.

[0048] The process control in this case is aimed at determining the existence of residuals of the layer material L1 and/or the thickness of the remaining Silicon Nitride (Si3N4) layer L2. To this end, the thickness of the layers L1 and L2 is to be measured after the polishing is complete, or is to be periodically or continuously measured during the polishing (in-situ), as the case may be.

[0049] The standard approach for controlling the process of layer L1 removal consists of performing only post-polishing (or in-polishing) spectrophotometric measurements, and analyzing the so-obtained measured spectrum to understand the two thickness values d′1 and d′2 of, respectively, the Silicon Oxide layer L1 residues and the Silicon Nitride layer L2 forming (total) processed structure with thickness d′. The data analysis is based on data interpretation for both the Silicon Nitride layer and the Silicon Oxide residues via Merit Function (MF) calculation for regression fit.

[0050] It appears that the standard post-polishing spectrophotometric measurement is complicated and practically impossible in the case where the thickness of layer L1 is too small and/or the layers L1 and L2 have very similar optical properties with respect to incident radiation used in optical measurements. Practically, the standard approach is incapable of distinguishing the layer of Silicone Oxide of less than 100 thickness from the underneath Silicon Nitride layer. In a typical example, the wafer stack after polishing includes 0 Å Silicon Oxide layer L1, 970 Å Silicon Nitride layer L2 and a lower 80 Å Pad Oxide/Si layer L3. The limitation in this case comes from the fact that the basic discrimination of each of these transparent layers is proportional to a product (n·d), wherein n is the refraction index of the respective layer. So, measuring (n1·d1+n2·d2) for d2<<d1 is problematic, as long as these parameters satisfy the following relation:

n 2 ·d 2 <<(n1·d1+n2·d2)

[0051] The rate of MF change vs. thickness change for each material presents the sensitivity of the regression fit to this parameter. It appears that there is no sensitivity to small Silicon Oxide thickness, while for the Silicon Nitride thickness, the rate of change is much sharper.

[0052] The present invention solves the above problem by utilizing data indicative of optical measurement results on the wafer W prior to be processed (pre-process measurement) for the analysis of an after-process measurement. This pre-process measured data can be provided either by applying optical measurements to a wafer arrived for the specific processing, or by utilizing after-process measured data associated with a prior manufacturing step. In this specific example of material removal of layer L1, such a pre-process measurement may be that obtained after completing the deposition of this layer L1, for example, previously obtained for the purposes of controlling the deposition process.

[0053] As indicated above, the post-polishing measurement of (n·d1+n2·d2) for d2<<d1 is problematic as long as n2·d2<<(n1·d1+n2·d2). This condition, however, is not valid for a pre-polishing state (or after-deposition state), and this measurement can be accurately executed using the interpretation of both parameters simultaneously, since each layer thickness significantly affects the measured spectrum. For a typical situation of the stack comprising 4840 Å Silicon Oxide layer L1, 960 Å Silicon Nitride layer L2 and 80 Å STI Pad Oxide/Si layer L3, the MF slopes for the thicknesses of layers L1 (Oxide) and L2 (Nitride) are significantly high, thus ensuring good convergence sensitivity for both parameters. The mutual effect of one thickness on the other thickness is minor and good accuracy can be achieved even for simultaneous data interpretations. Hence, according to the technique of the present invention, data indicative of thicknesses d, and d2 of layers L1 and L2, respectively, are determined in the pre-polishing state of the wafer W, and then data indicative of thickness d2 is “injected” to the interpretation of the post-polishing measurement.

[0054] FIG. 4 presents a one-dimensional MF plot, namely, MF vs. Silicon Oxide thickness (layer L1 in FIG. 3). The minimum of this function at zero thickness is well defined. The Nitride layer thickness d′2 at the after-polishing state of the wafer can be easily and accurately interpreted using optical measurements at the pre-polishing state of the wafer. By this, ambiguity regarding small errors in the Silicon Nitride thickness and large errors in the Silicon Oxide thickness can be avoided.

[0055] Turning back to FIG. 1 and referring to FIG. 5 illustrating a block diagram of a method according to the invention, the system 10 according to the invention operates in the following manner.

[0056] Measured data MD1 (constituting first measured data), obtained by applying optical measurements to the wafer W prior to be processed by the tool 15A, is provided (Step I). The first pre-process measured data MD1, is indicative of thicknesses d1 and d2 of layers L1 and L2, respectively.

[0057] This data MD1 may be obtained while controlling a previous manufacturing process of depositing layer L1 onto layer L2 (e.g., CVD process). In this case, measured data MD1, for controlling the polishing process, presents reference data previously supplied to the control unit 14 and stored in its memory utility 14A. Alternatively, or additionally, the first measured data MD1 is obtained when the wafer W arrives to the polishing system 15. In this case, considering the integrated implementation of the system 10 (e.g., utilizing the same wafer transfer means of the processing system 15), the wafer W to be processed by the processing tool 15A is first supplied to a measurement area defined by the optical device 12. The control unit 14 operates the optical device 12 to apply optical measurements to at least selected sites of the wafer W and generate first measured data MD, indicative of the thicknesses d, and d2 of layers L1 and L2, respectively. This measured data MD1 is received at the control unit 14 and stored in the memory utility 14A.

[0058] The processed (polished) wafer W is supplied to the measurement area defined by the optical device 12. The control unit 14 operates the optical device 12 to apply a post-process optical measurement and generate second measured data MD2 (Step II). This second measured data MD2 is indicative of a thickness d′ of a structure after processing, including thickness d2′ of layer L2 and layer material L1 with thickness d1′ that might remain on top of layer L2. The control unit 14 analyzes the first and second measured data to discriminate between optical parameters that have non-orthogonal contribution to the optical measurement and determine at least the thickness d2′ of layer L2 in the processed wafer (Step III). Since the thickness of layer L2 has not been affected by the polishing and therefore remains the same as in the pre-process state of the wafer, the so-obtained data indicative of the thickness of layer L2 in the processed wafer is indicative of the thickness d1′ of layer material L1 on top of layer L2 in the post-process wafer state, and is thus indicative of the quality of polishing, namely, whether the working parameters of the polishing tool are to be corrected or not. The control unit 14 thus generates a control signal indicative of the data analysis results to be used in operating the processing tool accordingly.

[0059] FIG. 6 exemplifies the operational steps of the processor utility (14B in FIG. 1) while processing and analyzing the first and second measured data MD1 and MD2. In this specific example, the polishing is aimed at complete removal of layer L1 and partial removal of layer L2. For example, the case may be such that material L1 is deposited on the patterned surface of layer L2 to fill grooves in layer L2. As indicated above, first measured data MD1 is not necessarily obtained just prior to applying to the wafer a specific process to be controlled. In the case of controlling a polishing process, first pre-processed measured data MD1 might be that obtained during the control of a previous CVD process applied to the same wafer, and thus the pre-process measured data MD1 for polishing process presents a post-process measured data for the deposition process. Second measured data MD2 is that obtained from optical measurements applied to at least selected sites of the polished wafer, provided these sites have been measured in a pre-polished state of the wafer. With regard to the post-polishing measurement, it is assumed that there is no layer L1 on top of layer L2, and thus data MD2 indicative of the thickness value d′ obtained in the post-polishing measurement is to be compared to data MD1 indicative of the layer L2 thickness d′2 at the pre-polished state of the wafer.

[0060] The processor utility thus identifies whether data MD1 and MD2 are indicative of that thickness d′ at the post-polish state is below the pre-polished thickness d2 or not. To this end, a certain predetermined threshold is considered defined by an acceptable error for the pre-polishing measurement (about 5 Å). If d′ is smaller than d2, the difference between d′ and d2 is interpreted using a one-dimensional function of MF vs. Nitride thickness, thereby enabling the determination of thickness d′2 in the polished wafer, i.e., the measurement is finished by presenting the Silicon Nitride actual thickness result d′2 and zero Silicon Oxide thickness residual d′1 (i.e. no residuals). If the measured thickness d′ is equal or higher than d2 of the pre-polished wafer, the second measured data is interpreted for the Silicon Oxide layer with the known pre-polishing Silicon Nitride thickness d2, thereby enabling the determination of both Nitride and Oxide layers' thicknesses d′1 and d′2 in the post-polished wafer.

[0061] The above technique of the present invention can advantageously be used for controlling a Physical Vapor Deposition process (PVD) of thin metal films. In this case, the measurement on a structure in a pre-process state could provide data that otherwise, due to measurement limitations, cannot be measured by the standard techniques. Such a pre-process measurement could provide a set of starting condition for a further measurement (e.g., thickness of underlying layers) to improve the interpretation of the further measurement. A typical example of this application is measuring in multi stacks of thin metals layers using optical methods. By additions of metal deposition steps, the metal stack layers can become practically opaque. Therefore, measuring in thin metal layers prior to an additional layer deposition step enables to achieve better accuracy measurement, and may actually determine the need for such type of measurements. Simultaneous layer thickness measurements in a structure formed by two thin metal layers might be impeded by error contribution from one metal to the other metal (due to diffusion effects at the interface between these layers). An example of such a structure is that formed by Tungsten (W) and Tungsten Nitride (WN) films, where the mutual contribution from W film to WN film is of the level of a few angstroms. The present invention provides for eliminating any additional contributions and having better repeatability for each of the layer thickness measurements in the W/WN stack by measuring the metal layer thickness after each deposition layer deposition process and utilizing these measurement results to control the deposition of a further layer. For example, the calculation has shown an improvement in the repeatability from 2.5 Å to 1.1 Å for the upper layer.

[0062] Reference is now made to FIGS. 7A and 7B, illustrating yet another example of a process to be controlled while manufacturing multi-layer structures, such as semiconductor wafers. In this example, a wafer W is shown prior to and after a material L1 deposition process (e.g., Sputtering or CVD) onto a patterned surface of layer L2 having trenches, holes, etc. The technique of the present invention provides for advantageously controlling this material deposition process by providing measured data from the preprocessed wafer (FIG. 7A) and utilizing this pre-deposition measured data for interpreting measured data from the post-processed wafer (FIG. 7B). The measurements are preferably based on scatterometry.

[0063] In that case, the basic sensitive capability is the measurement of shape of features (topological profile) covered by metal deposition. The scatterometry technique could not resolve with the required accuracy, parameters of metal thickness (for layers thicker than few hundreds angstroms), and especially the thickness of the metal layer covering the sidewalls. However, its sensitivity to shape parameters such as trench slopes, trench depth, trench opening (CD top), is extremely higher. In this case, these shape parameters could be measured with very good repeatability and accuracy.

[0064] More specific is the case of the barrier and seed layers deposition step that is a preliminary step for electroplating in the Damascene process. Each metal deposition process is a stage for a shape measurement based on the very sensitive parameters. Accurate and repeatable measurements on the same site prior and after each deposition step can yield different shapes, whose subtraction presents an actual thickness of the layer that has been deposited in this process step.

[0065] The present invention may be used for controlling various deposition steps by measuring layers' parameters (e.g., thickness) prior to and after the deposition. The structure profile (shape) is measured prior to the barrier layer L1 deposition on the structure, and the first measured data (profile) indicative of this pre-deposition measurement is generated. After completing the barrier layer deposition process, a measurement of the structure profile in the same measurement site is performed, and second measured data indicative of the post-deposition structure profile is generated. The actual thickness of the deposited layer is calculated as a difference between the second and first profiles. It should be noted, that actually the first measurement (constituting a pre-process measurement for the deposition process) could be performed after completing the step of trench etching, e.g., using a measurement system integrated with the etcher tools arrangement. The second measurement, constituting the post-deposition measurement for one layer, could be performed as a pre-process measurement for the seed layer deposition process. A similar technique could be applied for the control of the seed layer deposition process. In that case, the first measurement is performed prior to the seed deposition step (or after barrier layer deposition) and the second step is performed after completing the seed layer deposition (or prior to step of electroplating).

[0066] Process control for electroplating providing information on the metal layer thickness in all direction sidewalls, and bottom of the trench also could be provided in accordance with the present invention. In that case, the first measurement is performed prior to the electroplating step (or after seed layer deposition) and the second step is performed after completing the step of electroplating (or prior to the step of polishing or photolithography). Such process control for electroplating enables to eliminate or at least significantly reduce void or non-sufficient coverage problems.

[0067] The Table presented below illustrates the analysis of such capability for pre- and post-seed layer deposition measurement. Presented is a calculation that was done using repeatability data retrieved from an optical scatterometry tool that gives data for the CD top and sidewall slopes of the trench that was covered with a metal layer. In this calculation, the maximal error that can be caused by the subtraction of two shapes (pre-seed and post-seed deposition) measured by scatterometry is analyzed.

Error of pre-	Measurement	Measurement in
process + post-	of	post-process state
process	pre-processing	for known pre-
measurement	error	process profile
Seed with	Barrier error	SEED for known
measured barrier		barrier profile
problems
0.288	0.144	0.144	Contribution of
			reference point
			error “CD top” -
			STDEV[nm]
1.903	0.951	0.951	Error due to slope
			contribution -
			STDEV[nm]
2.191	1.095	1.095	Worse error for
			any point across
			profile -
			STDEV[nm]
8.15%	4.08%	4.08%	Worse error for
			any point across
			profile - STDEV
			[% of seed
			thickness]

[0068] Thus, the present invention can advantageously be used for controlling the processing a multi-layer structure, such as a semiconductor wafer. The process to be controlled may be a layer deposition or layer removal process. The measurements preferably utilize optical means but, generally, any other kind of measurements can be used, provided they are capable of providing data indicative of thickness and/or surface profile of a structure under measurements.

[0069] Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications and changes may be applied to the invention as hereinbefore exemplified without departing from its scope, as defined in and by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for use in controlling processing of a structure, the method comprising: providing first measured data indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness of at least one layer of the structure in at least selected sites of the structure prior to said processing of the structure, and a surface profile of the structure prior to said processing; applying optical measurements to at least said selected sites in the structure after said processing and generating second measured data indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness of the processed structure and a surface profile of the processed structure; analyzing the second measured data by interpreting it using the first measured data to thereby determine a thickness of at least one layer of the processed structure, said determined thickness being indicative of the quality of said processing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first measured data is provided by applying said measurements to the structure prior to said processing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said first measured data is reference data obtained while controlling a previous processing of said structure.

4. The method of claim 1, for use in controlling the process of material removal from the structure.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said first measured data is indicative of the thickness of an uppermost layer and the thickness of a layer underneath said uppermost layer of said structure, prior to applying the material removal process to said structure.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said process to be controlled is aimed at removing the uppermost layer and partially removing the underneath layer.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said thickness determined from the data analysis is the thickness of said underneath layer of the structure.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the data analysis provides for determining the thickness of said underneath layer and the thickness of said uppermost layer of the structure.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein said first measured data is provided by applying said measurements to the structure after the uppermost layer deposition process.

10. The method of claim 1, for use in controlling the process of depositing an upper thin layer onto a lower thin layer of the structure, wherein the upper and lower layers materials are of the kind capable of diffusing one into the other within an interface region between the layers.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said first measured data is indicative of the thickness of said lower layer, and said thickness determined from the data analysis is said the thickness of the upper layer.

12. The method of claim 1, for use in controlling the process of depositing an upper layer onto a patterned surface of a lower layer, the first measured data being indicative of the surface profile of the patterned lower layer., the data analysis providing for determining the thickness of the deposited layer.

13. A method for use in controlling processing of a structure, the method comprising: providing first optical spectral measured data indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness of at least one layer of the structure in at least selected sites of the structure prior to said processing of the structure, and a surface profile of the structure prior to said processing; applying spectral optical measurements to at least said selected sites in the structure after said processing and generating second optical spectral measured data indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness of the processed structure and a surface profile of the processed structure; analyzing the second measured data by interpreting it using the first measured data to thereby determine a thickness of at least one layer of the processed structure, said determined thickness being indicative of the quality of said processing.

14. A method for use in controlling a material removal process applied to a multi-layer structure, the method comprising: providing first optical spectral measured data indicative of a thickness of an uppermost layer of the structure and a thickness of a layer underneath said uppermost layer in at least selected sites of the structure prior to said processing of the structure; applying optical spectral measurements to at least said selected sites of the structure after said material removal processing of the structure, and generating second spectral measured data indicative of a thickness of the processed structure; analyzing the second measured data by interpreting it using the first measured data to thereby determine at least a thickness of said underneath layer in the processed structure, said determined thickness being indicative of the quality of said processing.

15. A method for use in controlling a layer deposition process applied to a structure, the method comprising: providing first optical spectral measured data indicative of a thickness of a first layer of said structure onto which a second layer is to be deposited; applying optical spectral measurements to at least selected sites in the structure after said layer deposition processing of the structure, and generating second measured data indicative of a thickness of the processed structure; analyzing the second measured data by interpreting it using the first measured data to thereby determine a thickness of the deposited layer.

16. A method for use in controlling a layer deposition process applied to a patterned layer of a structure, the method comprising: providing first optical spectral measured data indicative of a surface profile of said patterned layer of the structure onto which a second layer is to be deposited; applying optical spectral measurements to at least selected sites in the structure after said layer deposition processing of the structure, and generating second measured data indicative of a surface profile of the processed structure; analyzing the second measured data by interpreting it using the first measured data to thereby determine a thickness of the deposited layer.

17. An optical system for use in controlling processing of a multi-layer structure, the system comprising: an optical device comprising a light source arrangement, a light detector assembly, and a light directing assembly, the optical device being operable to apply optical measurements to the structure and generate data representative of light returned from the structure, said generated data being indicative of at least one of the following: a thickness of at least one layer of the structure, and a surface profile of the structure; a control unit connectable to the optical device to operate said device and receive said generated data, said control unit having a memory utility for storing first measured data obtained from optical measurements applied to the structure prior to said processing, and having a processor utility preprogrammed to analyze second measured data obtained from the optical measurements applied to the structure after said processing, said analyzing of the second measured data including interpreting the second measured data using the first measured data to thereby determine a thickness of at least one layer of the processed structure, said determined thickness being indicative of the quality of said processing.