Defects reduction at BEOL interconnect within 300mm manufacturingenvironment

摘要

Process yield is a critical factor for a success of 300mm manufacturing. Typically, higher yield corresponds to lowerdefect counts within the respective processing steps (lithography, etch, plating, and CMP). Within BEOL lithographicprocesses, there are issues of defects within same lithographic technology and there are concerns of defects between thegeneration of lithographic technologies, for example, immersion, 193nm "dry", and DUV (248nm). In order to have aneffective defect reduction strategy, defects have to be monitored, identified, and analyzed for points of origins. In thispaper, we explore three areas of interests in the BEOL: 1) defects occur between different processing steps, specifically,after Immersion Lithography, after Reactive Ion Etch (RIE), and after Chemical Mechanical Polish (CMP), 2) defectsafter CMP between lithographic technologies (Immersion, Dry, and DUV), and finally 3) defects between differentdevices. We were able to find evidence of transferable processing defects.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.