Direct-scatterometry-enabled optical-proximity-correction-model calibration

Chih-Yu Chen; Philip C. W. Ng; Chun-Hung Liu; Yu-Tian Shen; Kuen-Yu Tsai; Jia-Han Li; Jason J. Shieh; Alek C. Chen

doi:10.1117/12.2009064

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18 April 2013 Direct-scatterometry-enabled optical-proximity-correction-model calibration

Chih-Yu Chen, Philip C. W. Ng, Chun-Hung Liu, Yu-Tian Shen, Kuen-Yu Tsai, Jia-Han Li, Jason J. Shieh, Alek C. Chen

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Proceedings Volume 8681, Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XXVII; 86810U (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2009064
Event: SPIE Advanced Lithography, 2013, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

Fast and robust metrologies for retrieving large amount of accurate wafer data is the key to meet the ever stricter semiconductor manufacturing process control such as critical dimension (CD) and overlay as the industry moving towards 22 nm or smaller designs. Scatterometry emerges due to its non-destructivity and rapid availability for accurate wafer data. In this paper we simulate the ability of a new scatterometry method to show its accurate control over lithography model and OPC model calibrations. The new method directly utilizes scattering signals of scatterometry to control the process instead of using numerically analyzed dimensional parameters such as CD and side wall angle (SWA). The control can be achieved by optimizing the scattering signal of one process by tuning numerical aperture (NA), sigma, or lens aberration to match the signal of the target process. In this work only sigma is used for optimization. We found that when the signals of both processes are matched with minimized optimization error, CD of the grating profiles on the wafers are also minimized. This result enables valid lithography process control and model calibration with the new method.

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Chih-Yu Chen, Philip C. W. Ng, Chun-Hung Liu, Yu-Tian Shen, Kuen-Yu Tsai, Jia-Han Li, Jason J. Shieh, and Alek C. Chen "Direct-scatterometry-enabled optical-proximity-correction-model calibration", Proc. SPIE 8681, Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XXVII, 86810U (18 April 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2009064

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