Improving inspectability with KLA-Tencor TeraScan thin line de-sense

Chunlin Chen; David Kim; Ki Hun Park; NamWook Kim; Sang Hoon Han; Jin Hyung Park; Dong Hoon Chung

doi:10.1117/12.747180

16 November 2007 Improving inspectability with KLA-Tencor TeraScan thin line de-sense

Chunlin Chen, David Kim, Ki Hun Park, NamWook Kim, Sang Hoon Han, Jin Hyung Park, Dong Hoon Chung

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6730, Photomask Technology 2007; 67303O (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.747180
Event: SPIE Photomask Technology, 2007, Monterey, California, United States

Abstract

In the ever-changing semi-conductor industry, new innovations and technical advances constantly bring new challenges to fabs, mask-shops and vendors. One of such advances is an aggressive optical proximity correction (OPC) method, sub-resolution assist features (SRAF). On one hand, SRAFs bring a leap forward in resolution improvement during wafer printing; on the other hand they bring new challenges to many processes in mask making. KLA-Tencor Corp. working together with Samsung Electronics Co. developed an additional function to the current HiRes 1 detector to increase inspectability and usable sensitivity during the inspection step of the mask making process. SRAFs bring an unique challenge to the mask inspection process, which mask shops had not experienced before. SRAF by nature do not resolve on wafer and thus have a higher tolerance in the CD (critical dimension) uniformity, edge roughness and pattern defects. This new function, Thin-Line De-sense (TLD), increase the inspectability and usable sensitivity by generating different regions of sensitivity and thus will match the defect requirement on a particular photomask with SRAFs better. The value of TLD was proven in a production setting with more than 30 masks inspected, and resulted in higher sensitivity on main features and a sharp decrease in the amount of defects that needed to be classified.

Citation Download Citation

Chunlin Chen, David Kim, Ki Hun Park, NamWook Kim, Sang Hoon Han, Jin Hyung Park, and Dong Hoon Chung "Improving inspectability with KLA-Tencor TeraScan thin line de-sense", Proc. SPIE 6730, Photomask Technology 2007, 67303O (16 November 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.747180

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