Study of μDBO overlay target size reduction for application broadening

With these proceedings we present μ-diffraction-based overlay (μDBO) targets that are well below the currently supported minimum size of 10×10 μm2 . We have been capable of measuring overlay targets as small as 4×4 μm2 with our latest generation YieldStar system. Furthermore we find an excellent precision (TMU < 0.33 nm for 6 × 6 μm2 ) without any compromise on throughput (MAM time < 60 ms). At last a study that compares four generations of YieldStar systems show clearly that the latest generation YieldStar systems is much better capable of reading small overlay targets such that the performance of a 16 × 16 μm2 on an early generation YieldStar 2nd-gen is comparable to that of a 8 × 8 μm2 on the latest YieldStar 5th-gen. This work enables a smaller metrology footprint, more placement flexibility and in-die overlay metrology solutions.