Methods and systems of film frame pre-alignment for semiconductor measurement equipment

Abstract

Methods and systems for high precision, high throughput measurement of devices mounted to a Film Frame (FF) are described herein. A pre-alignment system precisely measures the position and orientation of both a film frame and a wafer supported by the film frame with respect to a coordinate system fixed to a measurement system employed to characterize devices under measurement. In this manner, the film frame and the wafer supported by the film frame are loaded onto a measurement system chuck with a known orientation and position with respect to the measurement system. Precise knowledge of position and orientation of the film frame and wafer enables measurement system navigation through wafer sites with minimal throughput loss as additional search and alignment sequences are generally not required. In preferred embodiments, a pre-alignment system is integrated with a measurement system to perform pre-alignment functionality within a shared equipment footprint.

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