Impact of attenuated phase-shifting mask for 157-nm lithography with high numerical aperture lens

Kunio Watanabe; Eiji Kurose; Toshifumi Suganaga; Toshiro Itani

doi:10.1117/12.485318

26 June 2003 Impact of attenuated phase-shifting mask for 157-nm lithography with high numerical aperture lens

Kunio Watanabe, Eiji Kurose, Toshifumi Suganaga, Toshiro Itani

Proceedings Volume 5040, Optical Microlithography XVI; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.485318
Event: Microlithography 2003, 2003, Santa Clara, California, United States

Abstract

A phase-shifting mask (PSM) is one of the most effective resolution enhancement technologies to improve the resolution limit and process margins such as exposure latitude (EL) and depth of focus (DOF). The attenuated phase-shifting mask (Att-PSM) is the most practical PSM, because it has a simple structure and can be easily fabricated. However, it is very difficult to evaluate the impact of using Att-PSMs on the resolution limit and process margin, under the condition of both a shorter wavelength and higher numerical aperture (NA). The reason is that the resolution improvement of the Att-PSM is very small under the above condition. In this study, we investigate the impact of using the Att-PSM instead of a binary mask under the conditions of shorter wavelength (157-nm) and higher-NA (0.85-NA). We evaluated the resolution limit by both aerial image simulation and exposure experiment. The aerial image simulation confirmed that the resolution improvement in the line and space pattern that can be expected from an Att-PSM of 5% transmittance diminished by decreasing wavelength and increasing NA. In particular, when a wavelength of 157-nm and an NA of 0.85 are used, we obtained a 6% resolution improvement compared to the binary mask. In the exposure experiment, we obtained an 11% resolution improvement when using a TaSiOx-type Att-PSM of 5.7% transmittance. From these results, we found that the Att-PSM can be used to fabricate smaller size features even shorter wavelength of 157-nm and the higher NA of 0.85.

Citation Download Citation

Kunio Watanabe, Eiji Kurose, Toshifumi Suganaga, and Toshiro Itani "Impact of attenuated phase-shifting mask for 157-nm lithography with high numerical aperture lens", Proc. SPIE 5040, Optical Microlithography XVI, (26 June 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.485318

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
8 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Photomasks

Binary data

Transmittance

Phase shifts

Lithography

Image resolution

Image transmission

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years