Semiconductor Wafer Inspection via Probe Failure Map Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing semiconductor wafer inspection methods are inefficient due to inspecting repetitive and uniform care areas across the wafer, even though defects may not necessarily repeat from die to die, and often lack complete data from defect images, leading to suboptimal yield improvement.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing probe data to identify specific failed areas on a wafer, allowing for inspection of a random set of non-repeating care areas, characterized by their location and size, to focus inspections on only the necessary areas, thereby optimizing inspection time and improving efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If uniform repeating care areas are inspected across the wafer, then complete coverage is achieved, but inspection time increases and efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the repetition of care areas across the wafer, inspecting only unique care areas based on probe failure data. This eliminates redundant inspections while maintaining coverage of defective regions, directly resolving the contradiction between complete coverage and inspection time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by inspecting only the necessary care areas identified from probe failure maps rather than performing complete uniform inspection across all dies. This selective approach maintains adequate coverage of defective regions while significantly reducing inspection time.
2Stability of the object's composition
If fixed care areas are defined uniformly across the wafer, then inspection consistency is maintained, but inspection efficiency decreases due to redundant areas
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the static, fixed care area definition into a dynamic approach where care areas are determined based on actual probe failure data. This allows the inspection regions to adapt to actual defect locations while maintaining consistency in the inspection process, resolving the contradiction between consistency and efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by defining care areas with specific characteristics based on probe failure locations rather than uniform definitions across all dies. Each care area is tailored to the local defect characteristics, improving inspection efficiency while maintaining consistency through systematic determination methods.
3Reliability
If all dies are inspected with repeating care areas, then defect detection coverage is maximized, but time to result increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary probe testing to identify failure locations before the actual inspection. This preliminary action provides information about where defects are likely to occur, allowing the inspection to focus on those specific areas and reducing the time to result while maintaining defect detection coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses feedback from probe failure data to determine which care areas require inspection. The probe results provide feedback about actual defect locations, which then guides the inspection process to focus on relevant areas, improving both defect detection coverage and reducing inspection time.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for semiconductor wafer inspection is disclosed. Each of a plurality of dies on a wafer may be probed with a probe tool to produce probe data. The probe data may be used to generate one or more non-repeating care areas. An inspection tool may use the non-repeating care areas to perform an inspection of the semiconductor wafer.