Plating leakage warning method and electrolytic plating room plating leakage warning system

Abstract

A method and system for warning of plating leakage in an electrolytic plating chamber are disclosed. The method includes the steps of placing an electrolytically plated wafer (100) at a detection position (S100), setting a detection target area (S200) of the wafer (100), operating an image sensor (400) to detect the detection target area (S300) of the wafer (100) and determining whether or not there is an unwanted metal deposit in the detection target area of ​​the wafer (100) (S400), issuing an alarm command if the determination result indicates the presence of an unwanted metal deposit in the detection target area of ​​the wafer (100) and indicates that a plating leakage has occurred in the electrolytic plating chamber where the wafer (100) is processed, and not issuing an alarm command if the determination result indicates that there is no unwanted metal deposit in the detection target area of ​​the wafer (100) and indicates that no plating leakage has occurred in the electrolytic plating chamber where the wafer (100) is processed. By automatically detecting plating leaks on the wafer (100) using the detection device, it is possible to quickly detect plating leak problems on the wafer (100) and issue an alarm instead of manually inspecting the electrolytic plating state of the wafer (100), and it becomes easier for personnel to handle the plating room.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of semiconductor manufacturing technology, and more particularly to a plating leakage warning method and a plating leakage warning system for an electrolytic plating chamber. [Background technology]

[0002] The manufacturing process of integrated circuits involves many processes. Among them, the electrolytic plating process is an essential step in the chip manufacturing process. During the electrolytic plating process, anomalies such as plating leakage, electrical discontinuity, plating height abnormality, and liquid leakage frequently occur. In particular, plating leakage can lead to a decrease in plating height. If not detected in time, the entire batch of wafers, or multiple batches, may be reworked or scrapped. To detect the plating leakage problem of wafers in a timely manner, it is necessary to inspect the wafers to check their condition after electrolytic plating is completed. When a plating leakage is detected, the status of the corresponding electrolytic plating room needs to be switched from production to maintenance to be handled.

[0003] The means to solve the above problem in the prior art is to manually inspect the electrolytic plating status of the entire batch of wafers after the entire batch of wafers is electrolytically plated, and judge whether there is an abnormality during the process of electrolytic plating. This method has obvious defects. First, inspection is only performed after the entire batch of wafers is electrolytically plated, which means that if an abnormality occurs, the entire batch of wafers will be reworked or discarded, which may cause huge losses. Second, inspection of wafer electrolytic plating abnormalities requires detailed checks. Manual inspection is inefficient and costly. In addition, manual inspection is prone to errors, which may lead to incorrect judgments and misjudgments. Such errors may cause multiple batches of wafers to be reworked or discarded, which may have immeasurable consequences.

[0004] Therefore, there is an urgent need for a method to quickly check the electrolytic plating status of each wafer after plating by inspecting the seed layer on the wafer edge, instead of manual inspection. If a plating leak is detected on the edge of a wafer, an alarm must be issued immediately to notify the person in charge of the electrolytic plating room that processes that wafer, and to prevent the wafer from entering the electrolytic plating room that is to be plated. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The present invention proposes an alarm method and an alarm system for alarming plating leakage in an electrolytic plating chamber, so as to quickly detect plating leakage problems on a wafer and address the problems in the electrolytic plating chamber instead of manual inspection.

[0006] In a first aspect, the present invention provides a warning method for warning of a plating leak in an electroplating chamber, the warning method comprising the steps of: Placing the electrolytically plated wafer on a fixture at a detection position. A step of setting a detection target area on the wafer. Operate an image sensor to detect the target area of ​​the wafer and determine whether there is an unwanted metal deposit within the target area. If unwanted metal deposits are present within the detection target area of ​​the wafer, this indicates that a plating leak has occurred within the electrolytic plating chamber in which the wafer was processed, and an alarm command is issued. If there is no unwanted metal deposit within the detection target area, this indicates that there is no plating leakage within the electrolytic plating chamber in which this wafer was processed, and no alarm command is issued.

[0007] According to one embodiment of the invention, the fixture of the detection location includes: Separately installed fixtures, or A wafer chuck in a cleaning chamber used in the wafer cleaning process.

[0008] According to one embodiment of the invention, the step of operating the image sensor to detect the target area of ​​the wafer and determining whether there is an unwanted metal deposit within the target area of ​​the wafer further includes the steps of: Presetting a grey value threshold of the image sensor for issuing the alarm command. The image sensor collects an image of the target area of ​​the wafer to generate a target image, and transmits the target image to a processor. The processor receives the target image, performs grayscale processing on the target image to generate gray value data information of the target image, and compares the gray value data with a gray value threshold to generate a comparison result. Indicating the absence of unwanted metal deposits if the comparison result indicates that the grey value is within the grey value threshold range. Indicating the presence of unwanted metal deposits if the comparison results in the grey value exceeding the grey value threshold.

[0009] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the detection target area of ​​the wafer is set as a circular area of ​​1.0 to 2.0 mm from the periphery of the wafer toward the center of the wafer.

[0010] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the wafer and the image sensor are rotated relative to each other during the process in which the image sensor detects the detection target area of ​​the wafer.

[0011] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the speed of relative rotation between the wafer and the image sensor is 50 rpm or less.

[0012] According to one embodiment of the invention, the image sensor includes a camera used to collect an image of the object.

[0013] According to one embodiment of the present invention, when it is determined that a plating leak phenomenon has occurred in the electrolytic plating chamber, the method further includes issuing the alarm command, switching the operating state of the electrolytic plating chamber in which the wafer was processed to a state requiring maintenance, and prohibiting the wafer to be electrolytically plated from entering the electrolytic plating chamber.

[0014] In a second aspect, the present invention provides a warning system for warning of a plating leak in an electroplating chamber, which includes: a wafer positioning device for positioning the electrolytically plated wafer at a detection position; a detection device that detects a predetermined target area of ​​the wafer using an image sensor and determines whether or not there is an unwanted metal deposit within the target area; An alarm device that issues an alarm command when unwanted metal deposits are detected within the detection target area of ​​the wafer.

[0015] The method and system for warning of plating leaks in an electroplating chamber of the present invention automatically detects plating leaks on electroplated wafers, replacing manual inspection by quickly detecting plating leak problems on wafers and issuing warnings, allowing for easier manual handling of the electroplating chamber.

[0016] Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and obtained through the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and drawings. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0017] In order to more clearly describe the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings necessary for describing the embodiments or the prior art are briefly introduced below. It is clear that the drawings described below are some embodiments of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can obtain other drawings based on these drawings without creative efforts. [Figure 1]FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a plating leakage warning method for an electrolytic plating chamber according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a structural schematic diagram of a plating leakage detection device according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a structural schematic diagram of a plating leakage warning system for an electrolytic plating chamber according to one embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0018] In order to make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the following description will combine the drawings of the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part, not all, of the embodiments of the present invention. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative efforts are within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0019] The present invention proposes a plating leakage warning method for an electrolytic plating room, which includes the steps of placing an electrolytically plated wafer at a detection position, setting a detection target area of ​​the wafer, operating an image sensor to detect the detection target area of ​​the wafer, and judging whether there is an unwanted metal deposit in the detection target area of ​​the wafer, and issuing a corresponding feedback command according to the judgment result. The timely automatic inspection of the electrolytically plated wafer can replace the manual inspection of the electrolytic plating state of the wafer, timely find the plating leakage problem on the wafer, and alert the staff to handle the electrolytic plating room.

[0020] 1 is a schematic diagram of a plating leakage warning method in an electrolytic plating chamber according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the plating leakage warning method in an electrolytic plating chamber includes the following steps.

[0021] In S100, the electrolytically plated wafer is placed at the detection position.

[0022] After the wafer is electrolytically plated in the electrolytic plating chamber, it is removed from the electrolytic plating chamber and placed on a fixture at a detection position. The fixture in the embodiment of the present invention is a wafer chuck. The wafer is horizontally fixed by pins installed on the wafer chuck, which facilitates detection of plating leaks on the wafer. In this embodiment, the fixture is used not only to position the wafer but also to drive the rotation of the wafer, which will be described in detail later.

[0023] It is noteworthy that in this application, the fixture used to position the wafer at the detection position can be installed as a separate installation fixture independent of the existing wafer processing device. Alternatively, the wafer chuck used in the wafer cleaning process can be used as a fixture for wafer positioning after the electrolytic plating process is completed. By using the wafer chuck in the wafer cleaning process as the wafer detection position, not only can the wafer processing device be effectively utilized and the effective utilization rate of the device be improved, but also a separate jig for the detection position is not required, and the wafer transport procedure can be omitted. The wafer processing efficiency is effectively improved while the presence or absence of plating leakage on the wafer is reliably detected.

[0024] In S200, a detection target area on the wafer is set.

[0025] Specifically, in the embodiment of the present invention, the detection target area of ​​the wafer is set so that a specific area on the seed layer at the edge of the wafer is selected as the detection target area. More specifically, this area is a circular ring area defined by extending 1.0 to 2.0 mm from the periphery of the wafer toward the center of the wafer. More specifically, this circular ring area extends 1.5 mm from the periphery of the wafer toward the center of the wafer.

[0026] In S300, the image sensor is operated to detect a detection target area on the wafer.

[0027] Specifically, a gray value threshold for the image sensor to issue an alarm command is set in advance. The image sensor collects an image of the detected target area on the wafer, generates a target image, and transmits the target image to a processor.

[0028] During the process of the image sensor collecting the image of the detection target area on the wafer, the wafer and the image sensor maintain relative rotation. In the embodiment of the present invention, the relative rotation speed between the wafer and the image sensor during the relative rotation process does not exceed 50 rpm. If the relative rotation speed is too fast, the target image collected by the image sensor will be blurred, which will affect the accuracy of the result.

[0029] When collecting an image of the target area of ​​the wafer, the wafer is stationary and the image sensor rotates around the wafer to collect the image of the target area. Alternatively, the image sensor is fixed and the wafer chuck is connected to a driver, which rotates the wafer chuck to rotate the wafer while the image sensor collects the image of the target area of ​​the rotating wafer. Alternatively, both the wafer and the image sensor move simultaneously to create a relative motion to collect the image of the target area. As an example, in an embodiment of the present invention, the second method is used to collect the image of the target area. Specifically, please refer to FIG. 2, which shows a schematic diagram of a plating leakage detection device in an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, an electrolytically plated wafer 100 is horizontally fixed by pins on a wafer chuck 200, and the wafer chuck 200 is connected to a driving device 300. The driving device 300 drives the wafer chuck 200 to rotate the wafer 100. An image sensor 400 is disposed near the wafer 100, and the angle of the image sensor 400 can be adjusted to facilitate image collection of various target areas on the wafer 100. The image sensor 400 is connected to a processor 500. In this embodiment of the invention, the processor 500 is a computer. The image sensor 400 in this embodiment is a camera.

[0030] The processor 500 receives a target image, performs grayscale processing on the target image, generates a grayscale image of the target image, obtains gray value data information of the grayscale image, compares the gray value data information with a gray value threshold, and generates a comparison result.

[0031] In S400, it is determined whether or not there is an unwanted metal deposit in the detection target area of ​​the wafer, and corresponding feedback is provided based on the determination result. If the determination result indicates the presence of an unwanted metal deposit in the detection target area of ​​the wafer and a plating leak occurring in the electrolytic plating chamber in which the wafer is processed, an alarm command is issued. If the determination result indicates the absence of an unwanted metal deposit in the detection target area of ​​the wafer and a plating leak occurring in the electrolytic plating chamber in which the wafer is processed, an alarm command is not issued.

[0032] If the determination result indicates that a plating leak has occurred in the plating chamber, an alarm command is issued, and then the operating state of the plating chamber in which the wafer is being processed is switched to a maintenance required state, and wafers to be plated are prohibited from entering this plating chamber.

[0033] As an example, in one embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned plating leakage warning method for an electrolytic plating chamber is used to perform SnAg plating leakage detection on an electrolytically plated wafer. First, a wafer on which SnAg electrolytic plating has been completed is placed on a wafer chuck. A circular ring area of ​​1.5 mm from the outer periphery of the wafer toward the center of the wafer is set as a detection target area for checking whether there is SnAg plating leakage on the wafer. Next, a camera is adjusted to the detection target area, and the camera is operated to collect an image of the detection target area on the wafer. During the image collection process, a driving device connected to the wafer chuck drives the wafer chuck to rotate the wafer at a rotation speed of 25 rpm until the rotation angle of the wafer is 360° or more. The camera transmits the collected target image to a computer. The computer performs grayscale processing on the target image to generate a grayscale image of the target image, obtains gray value data information of the grayscale image, compares the gray value data information with a gray value threshold, and generates a comparison result. As an example, the range of the gray value threshold is 0 to 200, and in this embodiment, the gray value threshold is set to 30. The grey values ​​of the greyscale image are compared to a grey value threshold.

[0034] Determine whether there is an unwanted metal deposit in the detection target area of ​​the wafer, and provide corresponding feedback based on the determination result. If the gray value of the target image is equal to or greater than the gray value threshold of 30, it is determined that there is an unwanted metal deposit in the detection target area of ​​the wafer, and if the determination result is that there is an unwanted metal deposit in the detection target area of ​​the wafer, it indicates that a plating leak occurs in the electrolytic plating chamber that processes the wafer, and an alarm command is issued.

[0035] It is determined that no unwanted metal deposits are present if the gray value of the target image is less than the gray value threshold of 30. If the determination result indicates that there are no unwanted metal deposits in the detection target area of ​​the wafer and no plating leakage is occurring in the electrolytic plating chamber processing the wafer, no alarm command is issued.

[0036] If a determination is made that a plating leak has occurred within the plating chamber, an alarm command is issued, the operating state of the plating chamber in which the wafer is being processed is switched to a maintenance required state, and wafers to be plated are prohibited from being transported into the plating chamber.

[0037] The present invention also provides a plating leakage warning system for an electrolytic plating room. Please refer to Figures 2 and 3. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a plating leakage detection device in one embodiment of the present invention. The plating leakage detection device corresponding to the plating leakage warning system for an electrolytic plating room of this embodiment is as shown in Figure 2, and the specific structural details are shown in Figure 2. Figure 3 shows a schematic structural diagram of the plating leakage warning system for an electrolytic plating room. As shown in Figure 3, the system includes: A wafer positioning device used to position an electrolytically plated wafer at a sensing position. A detection apparatus that uses an image sensor to detect a predetermined target area of ​​a wafer and determine whether or not the target area of ​​the wafer has unwanted metal deposits. An alarm device is used to issue an alarm command when the determination indicates the presence of unwanted metal deposits on the detection target area of ​​the wafer.

[0038] Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the above embodiments, it should be understood that those skilled in the art can still modify the technical solutions described in the above embodiments or replace some of the technical features with equivalents, and these modifications or replacements do not depart from the essence and scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. placing the electrolytically plated wafer on a fixture at a detection position; setting a detection target area of ​​the wafer; operating an image sensor to detect the target area of ​​the wafer and determining whether or not an unwanted metal deposit is present within the target area; issuing an alarm command if the result of the determination indicates that there is an unwanted metal deposit in the detection target area of ​​the wafer and that a plating leak has occurred in an electrolytic plating chamber for processing the wafer; A plating leakage warning method for an electrolytic plating chamber, comprising a step of not issuing an alarm command if the result of the judgment indicates that there are no unwanted metal deposits within the detection target area of ​​the wafer and that no plating leakage has occurred within the electrolytic plating chamber in which the wafer is processed.

2. The fixture at the detection position is Separately installed fixtures, or 2. The method for warning against plating leakage in an electrolytic plating chamber according to claim 1, wherein the warning against plating leakage is a wafer chuck in a cleaning chamber used in a wafer cleaning process.

3. Operate the image sensor to detect the target area of ​​the wafer and determine whether or not an unwanted metal deposit is present within the target area, comprising: presetting a grey value threshold of the image sensor for issuing the warning command; the image sensor acquiring an image of the target area of ​​the wafer to generate a target image, and transmitting the target image to a processor; the processor receiving the target image, performing a grayscale process on the target image to generate gray value data information of the target image, and comparing the gray value data information with the preset gray value threshold to generate a comparison result; if the grey value is within the grey value threshold range, the comparison indicates an absence of unwanted metal deposits; 2. The method for warning of plating leakage in an electrolytic plating chamber as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of: if the gray value in the comparison result exceeds the gray value threshold, the comparison result indicates the presence of an unwanted metal deposit.

4. 2. The plating leakage warning method for an electrolytic plating chamber according to claim 1, wherein the detection target area of ​​the wafer is set as a circular area of ​​1.0 to 2.0 mm from the periphery of the wafer toward the center of the wafer.

5. 2. The method for warning of plating leakage in an electrolytic plating chamber according to claim 1, wherein the wafer and the image sensor rotate relative to each other while the image sensor is detecting the detection target area on the wafer.

6. 6. The method for warning against plating leakage in an electrolytic plating chamber according to claim 5, wherein a relative rotation speed between said wafer and said image sensor is 50 rpm or less.

7. The method for warning of plating leaks in an electrolytic plating chamber according to claim 1 , wherein the image sensor includes a camera for collecting an image of the object.

8. 2. The plating leak warning method for an electrolytic plating chamber as described in claim 1, further comprising the steps of: if the result of the judgment is that a plating leak has occurred in the electrolytic plating chamber, after issuing the alarm command, switching the operating state of the electrolytic plating chamber that processes the wafer to a state requiring maintenance, and prohibiting wafers to be electrolytically plated from entering the electrolytic plating chamber.

9. a wafer positioning device used to position the electrolytically plated wafer at the detection position; a detection apparatus that detects a predetermined target area of ​​the wafer using an image sensor and determines whether the target area of ​​the wafer has unwanted metal deposits; and an alarm device used to issue an alarm command when the determination result indicates the presence of unwanted metal deposits in the detection target area of ​​the wafer.

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