Application of alternating phase-shifting masks to 140-nm gate patterning: II. Mask design and manufacturing tolerances

Liu, Huayu; Karklin, Linard; Wang, Yao‐Ting; Pati, Y.C.

doi:10.1117/12.310717

Cited by 38 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The first solution is detrimental for throughput of the exposure tool (although a very elegant complementary phase shift mask approach has been presented for printing the gate level of a microprocessor with heavily scaled gate lengths. In this approach, the fine lines of the gate level which run over active area are printed using the alternating PSM while the interconnecting poly lines over the field area are printed using the binary mask during the second exposure [11]), the second complicates the mask making even more.…”

Section: Design Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical lithography—a historical perspective

Ronse

2006

Comptes Rendus. Physique

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Section: Design Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical lithography—a historical perspective

Ronse

2006

Comptes Rendus. Physique

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“…7 Coma, on the other hand, causes critical dimension (CD) asymmetry in multiphase PSMs. 8 Although it has been demonstrated that alternating PSMs incur less intrafield linewidth variations than conventional chromium-on-glass (CoG) masks, 9 they generally result in higher image placement error (i.e. the lateral shift of printed features).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternating phase-shifting mask design for low aberration sensitivity

Mak¹,

Wong²,

Lam³

2004

SPIE Proceedings

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Theories are developed to optimize the mask structure of alternating phase-shifting masks (PSMs) to minimize the average image placement error towards aberration under coherent imaging. The constraint of the optimization is a given mean value of RMS aberration, which corresponds to infinitely many sets of random Zernike coefficients. To begin the analysis, the image placement error is expressed as a function of the mask spectrum and the wave aberration. Monte Carlo analysis on the Zernike coefficients is then performed, which assures us that a global minimum of average image placement error is likely to occur at low phase widths. This result is confirmed by analytically considering the expected value of the square of the image placement error. By Golden Section Search, the optimal phase width is found to be 0.3707(λ/NA) at 0.07λ RMS aberration. This methodology of finding the optimal phase width is applicable to the design of all alternating PSMs.

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“…There are several types, such as off-axis illumination (OAI) and phase shifting mask (PSM), that improve both the resolution and the process window in line pattern fabrication [1][2][3][4] . Some technologies, known as strong RETs, shrink the k1 factor in the Raleigh equation to 0.3 or below.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved outline phase shifting mask (OL-PSM) for reduction of the mask error enhancement factor

2003

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We propose a new resolution enhancement technology (RET) for enhancing the resolution of contact hole patterns. The technology uses an attenuated mask with phase shifting aperture. The phase shifter is laid out based on the OL-PSM and CL-PSM algorithm. These RETs are called "Mask Enhancer". Aerial images of random hole patterns are strongly enhanced by using the Mask Enhancer. We used the Mask Enhancer in 100-nm hole pattern fabrication in ArF lithography. The process window is strongly improved and the MEEF is drastically reduced compared to att-PSM.

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Application of alternating phase-shifting masks to 140-nm gate patterning: II. Mask design and manufacturing tolerances

Cited by 38 publications

References 4 publications

Optical lithography—a historical perspective

Optical lithography—a historical perspective

Alternating phase-shifting mask design for low aberration sensitivity

Improved outline phase shifting mask (OL-PSM) for reduction of the mask error enhancement factor

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