Accuracy assessment between on-product and on-optical-target overlay metrology with SEM and STEM

Optical overlay metrology has been used for years as the baseline for overlay control, measuring an optical target in the scribe line with optimized design to best match the on-product overlay. However, matching the optical target overlay measurements to the real on-product overlay becomes a serious challenge for most advanced technology nodes and forces the industry to develop different or complementary solutions. To identify and better quantify the different, well-known overlay accuracy detractors, in this work we have used optical and state-of-the-art electron beam technologies (eBeam) to measure on-product and on-optical target overlay errors of a wafer processed at imec using 5 nm technology node design rules and intentionally introduced overlay skews of +10 and -10 nm in x and y axis. The overlay errors as measured by the SEM eBeam system, equipped with elluminator™ technology which enables fast see through measurements of overlay which has been compared with (X-sectional) STEM-HAADF reference overlay metrology data. The on-product and optical target SEM overlay measurements show very similar wafer maps, in line with the applied overlay errors during the lithography exposure step. eBeam and TEM data show excellent correlation for the on-product overlay errors and the eBeam data also reveal a significant bias of ~ 6 nm between on-product and on-target overlay errors. From these results it can be concluded that manufacturing of advanced devices which require accurate OPO control, will need new metrology strategies that combine eBeam and optical or, eventually, use only eBeam technologies to guarantee effective overlay control with sufficient accuracy.