A new  is launched that Canon wafer measuring machine


Regenerative Times Report/Canon will launch the wafer measuring machine "MS-001" for semiconductor manufacturing on February 21, 2023, which can carry out high-precision alignment measurement on the wafer.

In the cutting-edge semiconductor fields such as logic and memory, the manufacturing process is becoming increasingly complex, and the wafer is more prone to warpage and other deformation. In order to manufacture high-precision semiconductor components, it is necessary to accurately measure the deformation of the wafer, and use several semiconductor lithography equipment to carry out high-precision lithography of up to several layers of circuit diagrams, and then conduct exposure. In order to achieve high-precision lithography, the number of alignment marks used for positioning on the wafer surface has increased from several to hundreds. For this reason, it is very time-consuming to measure the alignment of hundreds of alignment marks in each semiconductor lithography equipment, which reduces the production efficiency of semiconductor lithography equipment. With the application of new products, most of the alignment measurements can be completed uniformly before the wafers are transported to the semiconductor lithography equipment, reducing the workload of alignment measurement operations in the semiconductor lithography equipment, thus improving the production efficiency of the semiconductor lithography equipment.


01 With the help of the new light source of the area sensor and the calibration oscilloscope, the high-precision measurement of the alignment mark can be realized

The calibration oscilloscope carried by the new product "MS-001" is equipped with an area sensor, which can conduct multi-pixel measurement and reduce the noise during measurement. In addition, "MS-001" can also measure many kinds of alignment marks. By using the newly developed calibration oscilloscope light source, the new product can provide a wavelength range 1.5 times larger than that measured in semiconductor lithography equipment, and can be aligned and measured at any wavelength required by users. Therefore, the alignment measurement accuracy achieved by "MS-001" is higher than that measured in semiconductor lithography equipment.

02 Predictive exposure correction by using "Lithography Plus"

Through the introduction of the solution platform "Lithography Plus" (launched in September 2022), relevant information about the operation of semiconductor lithography machine and "MS-001" can be concentrated in "Lithography Plus". By comparing and monitoring the measurement data obtained by "MS-001" in the manufacturing process of semiconductor devices with the information collected by "Lithography Plus", we can detect the change of wafer surface alignment information and automatically correct it on the semiconductor lithography machine. In this way, we can realize the centralized management from alignment measurement to exposure process, and make contributions to reducing CoO