Mask error enhancement factor for sub-0.13-um lithography

Sia-Kim Tan; Qunying Lin; Chenggen Quan; Cho Jui Tay; Alex K. See

doi:10.1117/12.435788

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14 September 2001 Mask error enhancement factor for sub-0.13-μm lithography

Sia-Kim Tan, Qunying Lin, Chenggen Quan, Cho Jui Tay, Alex K. See

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Proceedings Volume 4346, Optical Microlithography XIV; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.435788
Event: 26th Annual International Symposium on Microlithography, 2001, Santa Clara, CA, United States

Abstract

Mask Error Enhancement Factor (MEEF) has become one of the critical concerns with the recent technology progress into producing pattern features far smaller than the wavelength of light, as in the case of 0.13 micrometer lithography and below. In this paper, we present MEEF study on different illumination conditions for 0.13 micrometer technology using 248 nm KrF Lithography. Both simulation results using Prolith/2 tool and experimental results using 248 nm DUV scanner, for varying the illumination conditions namely, annular versus conventional with different Numerical Aperture (NA) and Partial Coherent (PC) settings will be discussed. The study shows MEEF varies for different illumination conditions. MEEF was lower with high NA setting as compared to low NA, and annular illumination shows slight improvement of MEEF. In addition, experiments using different types of reticle specifically; Binary mask, 6% half tone Phase Shift Mask (PSM) and 18% High Transmittance Mask (HTM) were also analyzed to characterize its relationship with MEEF.

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Sia-Kim Tan, Qunying Lin, Chenggen Quan, Cho Jui Tay, and Alex K. See "Mask error enhancement factor for sub-0.13-μm lithography", Proc. SPIE 4346, Optical Microlithography XIV, (14 September 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.435788

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