Method for improving particle detection capability

Abstract

The invention discloses a method for improving the particle detection capability. A layer of nitride film is deposited on a detected silicon slice, particles which are attached to the surface of the silicon slice and have the sizes are smaller than the minimal defect detection size are amplified to reach the minimal defect detection size, and the dense characteristics of nitride are utilized, so that the loose particles have dense and smooth detected surfaces, the surface detection morphologies of the loose particles are improved, and the reflectivity of the loose particles on incident light and the concentration ratio of the loose particles on scattered light are enhanced, so that the loose particles and defect signals of the particles which have the sizes smaller than the minimal defect detection size can be successfully captured during optical defect detection on a dark field; and therefore, the detection capability on the small particles and the loose particles during the optical defect detection on a dark field is improved.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of optical defect detection in semiconductor manufacturing, and more specifically, to a method for improving the detection capability of small-sized particles and loose particles during dark-field optical defect detection. Background technique [0002] As the semiconductor chip manufacturing technology moves towards a smaller-sized new process technology node, the smaller-sized particles (Particles) produced during the manufacturing process will greatly affect the yield (Yield) and reliability (Reliability) of the chip. Optical defect detection technology is a detection method commonly used in semiconductor integrated circuit chip manufacturing, which is divided into two types: bright field and dark field optical defect detection technology. Among them, dark field optical defect detection technology (Darkfield Inspection) is a detection method that converts the scattered light intensity formed by the...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0003] Although the dark field optical defect detection technology has high performance and high efficiency that other detection technologies such as electron beam microscopes do not have, the dark field optical defect detection technology also has detection limitations on the minimum defect detection size

For example, a type of Surfscan SP2 machine produced by KLA Tencor (Kolei Co., Ltd.) can only detect particles with a size not smaller than 60 nanometers

Moreover, in the dark field optical defect detection technology, the roughness of the semiconductor silicon wafer (chip) surface film and the surface morphology of the particles will also affect the detection capability of the dark field.

For example, the dark-field optical defect detection technology reflects that the ability to detect loose particles with weak scattered light is poor. This is because the loose particles can absorb a certain amount of incident light; , There is no uniform directionality, which also reduces the detection ability of dark field optical defect detection technology

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