EUV OPC for the 20-nm node and beyond

Clifford, Chris; Zou, Yi; Latypov, Azat; Kritsun, Oleg; Wallow, Thomas I.; Levinson, Harry; Jiang, Fan; Civay, Deniz; Standiford, Keith; Schlief, Ralph E.; Sun, Lei; Wood, O. R.; Raghunathan, Sudhar; Mangat, Pawitter J. S.; Koh, Hui Peng; Higgins, Craig; Schefske, Jeffrey; Singh, Mandeep

doi:10.1117/12.916171

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…H-V print difference variation increases when resist model and aberrations are added to the simulation 12 .…”

Section: Simulation Of H-v Print Difference For 32nm Lines (Rigorous mentioning

confidence: 98%

Scatterometry metrology challenges of EUV

Dasari¹,

Li²,

Hu³

et al. 2012

SPIE Proceedings

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Resolution enhancement techniques such as double patterning (DP) processes are implemented to achieve lower critical dimension (CD) control tolerances. However the design complications, overlay resulting from multiple exposures, and production cost limit the DP usage. EUVL offers the most promising patterning technology to be adopted for 14nm and beyond due to simplicity and cost advantage estimates. However, EUVL is also prone to number of patterning challenges that are unique to EUV, such as orientation dependent pattern placement errors resulting from mask shadowing effect, flare(leads to CD non-uniformity) and non-flatness (leads to overlay errors). Even though the shadowing effects can be corrected by means of OPC and mask stack design, there is a need to monitor the systemic errors due to H-V bias in order to control the lithographic process. In this paper, we will report the measurement sensitivity of EUVL targets (CD, height and sidewall angle), systemic CD errors (H-V bias) and feedback for OPC correction by scatterometry. We will also report the measurement precision, accuracy and matching for EUV structures.

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“…H-V print difference variation increases when resist model and aberrations are added to the simulation 12 .…”

Section: Simulation Of H-v Print Difference For 32nm Lines (Rigorous mentioning

confidence: 98%

Scatterometry metrology challenges of EUV

Dasari¹,

Li²,

Hu³

et al. 2012

SPIE Proceedings

Self Cite

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“…In the proposed ILT methods, the positions and shapes of final SRAFs should be influenced by the seed parameter ϵ seed in Eq. (25) and the optimization parameters such as step length, threshold ϵ D , and so on. Due to space limitations, we will investigate the influences of these parameters on the SRAFs in future work.…”

Section: Nomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As shown in Eq. (25), the elements of Θ 0 S are set to be 1 if their distance to the MF is equal to ϵ seed . For a manufacturable mask, the distance between the MFs and SRAFs has to be larger than or equal to a predefined threshold ϵ D , which is referred to as the safe distance hereafter.…”

Section: B Gradient-based Inverse Euv Lithography Algorithmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the past, a set of approaches were developed to resolve the imaging degradation attributed to flare [13][14][15], while some other methods were used to compensate the effect of shadowing or off-axis incidence [16][17][18][19]. Recently, comprehensive OPC methods incorporating OPE, flare, photoresist, and mask shadowing models in the optimization flow have been proposed so as to jointly consider these effects [5,[20][21][22][23][24][25]. However, most of these EUV OPC approaches are edge-based, which only move the segments of mask edges to optimize the imaging performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gradient-based inverse extreme ultraviolet lithography

Ma¹,

Wang²,

Chen³

et al. 2015

Appl. Opt.

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Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is the most promising successor of current deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography. The very short wavelength, reflective optics, and nontelecentric structure of EUV lithography systems bring in different imaging phenomena into the lithographic image synthesis problem. This paper develops a gradient-based inverse algorithm for EUV lithography systems to effectively improve the image fidelity by comprehensively compensating the optical proximity effect, flare, photoresist, and mask shadowing effects. A block-based method is applied to iteratively optimize the main features and subresolution assist features (SRAFs) of mask patterns, while simultaneously preserving the mask manufacturability. The mask shadowing effect may be compensated by a retargeting method based on a calibrated shadowing model. Illustrative simulations at 22 and 16 nm technology nodes are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

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“…These errors vary with local pattern density over a range of few microns on the mask, and are most severe at high pattern densities. The requirements for CD control on EUV masks are not less stringent compared to optical masks 3 , and the introduction of optical proximity correction (OPC) on EUV will further tighten the mask error budgets 4 . In order to achieve these requirements, mask process correction (MPC) software will be required.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new mask linearity specification for EUV masks based on time dependent dielectric breakdown requirements

Standiford

Bürgel

2013

SPIE Proceedings

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When compared to conventional chrome absorber masks, electron beam patterning of EUV masks requires additional corrections to account for intermediate range electron backscattering from the mirror and tantalum based absorber layers. The performance of this Mask Proximity Correction software should not be specified based solely on traditional mask linearity measures. We propose a new mask linearity specification based on Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown requirements for metal layers.

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EUV OPC for the 20-nm node and beyond

Cited by 7 publications

References 8 publications

Scatterometry metrology challenges of EUV

Scatterometry metrology challenges of EUV

Gradient-based inverse extreme ultraviolet lithography

A new mask linearity specification for EUV masks based on time dependent dielectric breakdown requirements

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