Advanced imaging with 1.35 NA immersion systems for volume production

Bouchoms, Igor; Mulkens, Jan; Putter, Sander de; Gunter, P. L. J.; Graaf, Roelof de; Beems, Marcel; Verdurmen, Erwin; Jasper, Hans; Dieckmann, N.; Bornebroek, Frank

doi:10.1117/12.845597

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Based on a more advanced TWINSCAN NXT system architecture, the NXT:1950i, was launched in 2008 and delivered a step in productivity to over 200 wafers per hour, while also improving overlay to 2.5 nanometers. Contrary to the XT systems that use traditional stage-control interferometers, NXT:1950i incorporates an encoder-based stage positioning platform [8][9][10][11]. The reduced beam length in these encoder systems is known to be more robust to thermal conditioning perturbations and enable enhanced accuracy and reproducibility as is reflected in the total system overlay.…”

Section: Duv Dry Technology Advancementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Driving exposure accuracy and cost-of-ownership on DUV immersion and dry-NXT scanner products

de Boeij,

Smeets,

Viola

et al. 2024

Optical and EUV Nanolithography XXXVII

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In this paper we will report on the most recent immersion scanner innovations to improve scanner matching overlay. These are realized by improvements in e.g. optical column distortion, wafer alignment and system-metrology. We will elaborate on scanner solutions for wafer handling/chucking of warped wafers. Furthermore, to enable cost-of-ownership reduction, system design implementations driving larger scanner productivity (wafer per hour) will be presented.

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Section: Duv Dry Technology Advancementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Driving exposure accuracy and cost-of-ownership on DUV immersion and dry-NXT scanner products

de Boeij,

Smeets,

Viola

et al. 2024

Optical and EUV Nanolithography XXXVII

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“…Details on the Airdrag Immersion technology can be found in [1] . For the improved damping of the lens and the silent reticle stage and acoustic shielding see [1] [4] . In this paper we will focus on the specific NXT improvements: the novel stage position measurement system and the novel light weight wafer-stage enabling high throughput.…”

Section: Tool Overlay Improvementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards ultimate optical lithography with NXT:1950i dual stage immersion platform

et al. 2010

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Optical lithography, currently being used for 45-nm semiconductor devices, is expected to be extended further towards the 32-nm and 22-nm node. A further increase of lens NA will not be possible but fortunately the shrink can be enabled with new resolution enhancement methods like source mask optimization (SMO) and double patterning techniques (DPT). These new applications lower the k1 dramatically and require very tight overlay control and CD control to be successful. In addition, overall cost per wafer needs to be lowered to make the production of semiconductor devices acceptable. For this ultimate era of optical lithography we have developed the next generation dual stage NXT:1950i immersion platform. This system delivers wafer throughput of 175 wafers per hour together with an overlay of 2.5nm. Several extensions are offered enabling 200 wafers per hour and improved imaging and on product overlay.The high productivity is achieved using a dual wafer stage with planar motor that enables a high acceleration and high scan speed. With the dual stage concept wafer metrology is performed in parallel with the wafer exposure. The free moving planar stage has reduced overhead during chuck exchange which also improves litho tool productivity.In general, overlay contributors are coming from the lithography system, the mask and the processing. Main contributors for the scanner system are thermal wafer and stage control, lens aberration control, stage positioning and alignment. The back-bone of the NXT:1950i enhanced overlay performance is the novel short beam fixed length encoder grid-plate positioning system. By eliminating the variable length interferometer system used in the previous generation scanners the sensitivity to thermal and flow disturbances are largely reduced. The alignment accuracy and the alignment sensitivity for process layers are improved with the SMASH alignment sensor. A high number of alignment marker pairs can be used without throughput loss, and furthermore the GridMapper functionality which is using the inter-die and intra-die scanner capability can reduce overlay errors coming from mask and process without productivity impact.In this paper we will present the main design features and discuss the system performance of the NXT:1950i system, focusing on the improvements made in overlay and productivity. We will show data on imaging, overlay, focus and productivity supporting the 3X-nm node and we will discuss next improvement steps towards the 2X-nm node.

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“…Improvements in optical lithography have been an important driver in the continuous reduction of semiconductor device features. Over time, the exposure wavelength has been reduced from UV wavelengths down to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths (13.5 nm) while the numerical aperture (NA) of the imaging optics has increased to a hyper-NA of 1.35 for high-end deep-UV (DUV) systems [3] and 0.33 for the latest EUV systems [4]. As a result of this continuous progress in lithography, devices with a minimum feature size or critical dimension (CD) as small as 10 nm are already made using EUV lithography or multi-patterning techniques using DUV hyper-NA lithography tools [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical wafer metrology sensors for process-robust CD and overlay control in semiconductor device manufacturing

Boef

2016

Surf. Topogr.: Metrol. Prop.

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This paper presents three optical wafer metrology sensors that are used in lithography for robustly measuring the shape and position of wafers and device patterns on these wafers. The first two sensors are a level sensor and an alignment sensor that measure, respectively, a wafer height map and a wafer position before a new pattern is printed on the wafer. The third sensor is an optical scatterometer that measures critical dimension-variations and overlay after the resist has been exposed and developed. These sensors have different optical concepts but they share the same challenge that sub-nm precision is required at high throughput on a large variety of processed wafers and in the presence of unknown wafer processing variations. It is the purpose of this paper to explain these challenges in more detail and give an overview of the various solutions that have been introduced over the years to come to process-robust optical wafer metrology.

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Advanced imaging with 1.35 NA immersion systems for volume production

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Driving exposure accuracy and cost-of-ownership on DUV immersion and dry-NXT scanner products

Driving exposure accuracy and cost-of-ownership on DUV immersion and dry-NXT scanner products

Towards ultimate optical lithography with NXT:1950i dual stage immersion platform

Optical wafer metrology sensors for process-robust CD and overlay control in semiconductor device manufacturing

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