Evaluation of EUV mask impacts on wafer line-width roughness using aerial and SEM image analyses

Xuemei Chen; Erik Verduijn; Obert Wood; Timothy A. Brunner; Renzo Capelli; Dirk Hellweg; Martin Dietzel; Grizelda Kersteen

doi:10.1117/1.JMM.17.4.041012

17 September 2018 Evaluation of EUV mask impacts on wafer line-width roughness using aerial and SEM image analyses

Xuemei Chen, Erik Verduijn, Obert Wood, Timothy A. Brunner, Renzo Capelli, Dirk Hellweg, Martin Dietzel, Grizelda Kersteen

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS, Vol. 17, Issue 4, 041012 (September 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMM.17.4.041012

Abstract

As more aggressive EUV imaging techniques and resists with lower intrinsic roughness are developed for patterning at 7- and 5-nm technology nodes, EUV mask roughness will contribute an increasing portion of the total printed line-width roughness (LWR). We perform a comprehensive characterization of the EUV mask impacts on wafer LWR using actinic aerial images and wafer SEM images. Analytical methods are developed to properly separate and compare the LWR effects from EUV masks, photon shot noise, and resist stochastics. The use of EUV AIMS™ to emulate and measure incident photon shot noise effects is explored and demonstrated. A sub 10-nm EUV mask is qualified using EUV AIMS™ with scanner equivalent dose settings that are required for patterning 16- and 18-nm half-pitch L/S features. Typical chemically amplified EUV resists with low- and high-dose sensitivities are patterned and characterized with SEM metrology. The variance and spectral components contributing to wafer LWR are quantified and compared. Our analysis shows that speckle-induced aerial LWR is not a significant factor at the experimental imaging conditions when ML roughness is 50-pm rms. At the current scanner dose levels, mask absorber pattern roughness is a major factor in aerial LWR, but not as significant a contributor to wafer LWR where resist stochastics still dominate.

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Xuemei Chen, Erik Verduijn, Obert Wood, Timothy A. Brunner, Renzo Capelli, Dirk Hellweg, Martin Dietzel, and Grizelda Kersteen "Evaluation of EUV mask impacts on wafer line-width roughness using aerial and SEM image analyses," Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS 17(4), 041012 (17 September 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMM.17.4.041012

Received: 16 April 2018; Accepted: 15 August 2018; Published: 17 September 2018

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KEYWORDS

Line width roughness

Photomasks

Extreme ultraviolet

Semiconducting wafers

Scanning electron microscopy

Stochastic processes

Speckle

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