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This paper introduces a low-cost, automated wafer alignment system capable of submicron wafer positioning repeatability. Accurate wafer alignment is critical in a number of nanomanufacturing and nanometrology applications where it is necessary to be able to overlay patterns between fabrication steps or measure the same spot on a wafer over and over again throughout the manufacturing process. The system presented in this paper was designed to support high-throughput nanoscale metrology where the goal is to be able to rapidly and consistently measure the same features on all the wafers in a wafer carrier without the need for slow and expensive vision-based alignment systems to find and measure the desired features. The wafer alignment system demonstrated in this paper consists of a three-pin passive wafer alignment stage, a voice coil actuated nesting force applicator, a three degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) wafer handling robot, and a wafer cassette. In this system, the wafer handling robot takes a wafer from the wafer cassette and loads it on to the wafer alignment stage. The voice coil actuator is then used to load the wafer against the three pins in the wafer alignment system and align the wafer to an atomic force microscope (AFM)-based metrology system. This simple system is able to achieve a throughput of 60 wafers/h with a positional alignment repeatability of 283 nm in the x-direction, 530 nm in the y-direction, and 398 nm in the z-direction for a total capital cost of less than $1800.

One of the major challenges in nanoscale manufacturing is defect control because it is difficult to measure nanoscale features in-line with the manufacturing process. Optical inspection typically is not an option at the nanoscale level due to the diffraction limit of light, and without inspection high scrap rates can occur. Therefore, this paper presents an atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based inspection system that can be rapidly implemented in-line with other nanomanufacturing processes. Atomic force microscopy is capable of producing very high resolution (subnanometer-scale) surface topology measurements and is widely utilized in scientific and industrial applications, but has not been implemented in-line with manufacturing systems, primarily because of the large setup time typically required to take an AFM measurement. This paper introduces the design of a mechanical wafer-alignment device to enable in-line AFM metrology in nanoscale manufacturing by dramatically reducing AFM metrology setup time. The device consists of three pins that exactly constrain the wafer and a nesting force applied by a flexure to keep the wafer in contact with the pins. Kinematic couplings precisely mate the device below a flexure stage containing an array of AFM microchips which are used to make nanoscale measurements on the surface of the semiconductor wafer. This passive alignment system reduces the wafer setup time to less than 1 min and produces a lateral positioning accuracy that is on the order of ∼1 μm.

One of the major challenges in nanoscale manufacturing is defect control because it is difficult to measure nanoscale features in-line with the manufacturing process. Optical inspection typically is not an option at the nanoscale level due to the diffraction limit of light, and without inspection high scrap rates can occur. Therefore, this paper presents an atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based inspection system that can be rapidly implemented in-line with other nanomanufacturing processes. Atomic force microscopy is capable of producing very high resolution (sub-nm-scale) surface topology measurements and is widely utilized in scientific and industrial applications, but has not been implemented in-line with manufacturing systems, primarily because of the large setup time typically required to take an AFM measurement. In order to overcome this limitation, we have developed a single-chip-AFM-based inspection system where a wafer can be precisely and repeatably loaded into the setup and measurements can be taken in under 60 seconds. This inspection system consists of several single-chip AFMs integrated into a positioning stage to make measurements at multiple spots on a wafer at the same time. Each single-chip AFM is a MEMS device that is approximately 2 mm wide by 1 mm tall and is capable of scanning a 10 micron by 10 micron area. Thermal actuators in the MEMS device are used to do the scanning in both the x and y directions as well as to excite the z axis of the AFM so that it can be run in taping mode. Each AFM is attached to a flexure stage in the top plate of the inspection system so that the AFM can be precisely moved to the desired inspection location on the wafer. The flexure plate is coupled to the inspection plate using a kinematic coupling so that the flexure plate can be precisely located with respect to the inspection plate after each loading operation. In order to take a measurement, the flexure plate is removed from the inspection plate, a wafer is loaded into the inspection plate using an exactly constrained, passive alignment system, and the flexure plate is then placed back onto the inspection plate. This brings the AFMs back into contact with the surface that is to be measured and the AFMs can then start taking measurements without any additional alignment operations. The overall measurement procedure takes less than one minute, which is faster than most nanomanufacturing processes. This guarantees that the inspection step will not be the bottleneck in the manufacturing process.