You have requested a machine translation of selected content from our databases. This functionality is provided solely for your convenience and is in no way intended to replace human translation. Neither SPIE nor the owners and publishers of the content make, and they explicitly disclaim, any express or implied representations or warranties of any kind, including, without limitation, representations and warranties as to the functionality of the translation feature or the accuracy or completeness of the translations.
Translations are not retained in our system. Your use of this feature and the translations is subject to all use restrictions contained in the Terms and Conditions of Use of the SPIE website.
13 October 2011Determination of CD variance factors of 28nm 1x-metal layer hotspots
using experimental and simulated CD contours
The 28nm technology node is extremely challenging for the production of large chips with very aggressive design rules.
For the 1x-Metal layers especially, it has been observed that some design configurations known as hotspots have very
limited lithographic process window. They have generally complex bidimensional geometries that make them highly
sensitive to any process change and particularly to focus variation or mask error.
The first purpose of this study is to present an original methodology to characterize, with good statistics, the hotspots
after lithography. The principle is to stack many SEM pictures of the same hotspot, repeated on the wafer, to improve the
image signal-to-noise ratio and to average uncontrolled sources of CD variation. With such high quality images it is then
possible to extract contours of high accuracy.
The second scope of this work is to take advantage of the extracted contours to derive many CD measured preferentially
along the hotspot critical sections. The main contributors to CD variation are identified by analyzing the CD of hotspots
processed under different experimental conditions like intra-field locations, mask sizing or focus changes.
Francois Weisbuch andJessy Schramm
"Determination of CD variance factors of 28nm 1x-metal layer hotspots
using experimental and simulated CD contours", Proc. SPIE 8166, Photomask Technology 2011, 81663G (13 October 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.897126
The alert did not successfully save. Please try again later.
Francois Weisbuch, Jessy Schramm, "Determination of CD variance factors of 28nm 1x-metal layer hotspots using experimental and simulated CD contours," Proc. SPIE 8166, Photomask Technology 2011, 81663G (13 October 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.897126