Mask manufacturing using E-Beam at 32 nm process node and below is failing to meet CD uniformity, CD linearity
requirements due to the inherent systematic errors in the e-beam process. MPC-GC (Mask Process Correction through Geometric correction) is one technique, which moves the edges of input shapes inwardly or outwardly to compensate for the systematic errors. Since, geometric correction is done under some constraints there will always be further scope to improve the intensity profile of the mask layout to achieve better fidelity. In this paper, we discuss about an MPC flow to further enhance fidelity of the patterned shapes on the mask by adding dose correction on top of the geometric correction.
We have developed NxMPC-DC tool as part of NxMDP1 tool suite to achieve the above mentioned objective. If the input layout data is not fractured already, NxMPC-DC will use NxFracture2 to carry out fracturing and then assign modulated dose values to the shots. NxMPC-DC would take the same mask process model as the one used for NxMPC-GC. Hence, in this proposed flow, the fidelity of the simulated contour would only improve beyond the MPC-GC corrected data as there would not be any conflict between the mask process models used for geometric and dose based corrections.
Mask shops perform the QoR analysis of the fractured data by measuring the quality of the various basic metrics like the
shot count, sliver count, smashed figure count, file size, shot perimeter, sliver perimeter, number of thin slivers etc. Other
than the basic metrics mentioned above, the QoR of fractured data is also judged upon more advanced quality metrics
like the number of CD splits, number of embedded and shoreline slivers as well as the lengths of embedded and
shoreline slivers. Computation of these advanced metrics involves complex and compute-intensive algorithms, especially
because the fractured mask data sizes have already reached hundreds of GBs. Hence, an efficient distributed processing
solution with fast turn-around-time is required to measure the overall QoR metrics of fractured data solutions. This paper
clearly describes the definitions of various QoR metrics and then describes parallelizable schemes to measure these QoR
metrics.
Another important QoR metric of the fractured data is the orientation-independent fracturing uniformity. Fracturing
uniformity plays a significant role in ensuring CD uniformity. This paper introduces the concept of fracturing uniformity
and discusses the issues in detecting the same.
In this paper, we present the idea of (in-place) substitution of the fracture solution for some of the badly or nonuniformly
fractured instances of polygons, by a better fracture solution. Polygons could be categorized as badly or nonuniformly
fractured based on the values of various quality metrics - such as number of generated trapezoids, number of
slivers, uniformity in fracturing etc. The inferior quality of fracture solution may be due to sub-optimal fracturing. This
In-Place Optimization (IPO) strategy proposes a solution wherein rather than carrying out a complete re-fracturing of the
mask data, the QoR of fractured data can be improved "in-place" through applying patches to the hotspots of badly or
non-uniformly fractured polygons.
The proposed IPO scheme is flexible enough to classify the QoR of a fractured solution of a polygon using externally
defined parameters or formulae. In a way, the users responsible for mask MDP can categorize the quality of a fractured
solution as good or bad through defining some criteria externally to the tool. The IPO scheme allows internal
substitution, where a better fracture solution for any given polygon is found within the same fracture data at some other
instance of the polygon, or external substitution where a better fracturing solution is generated using a third party
fracturing tool or by using the same fracturing tool with different inputs. Since this IPO technique modifies the fractured
mask data, it is mandatory to have a built-in validation scheme which is discussed in detail.
Runtime of the Mask Data Preparation (MDP) tool is largely dependent on the hierarchy of the input layout data. In this
paper, we present a technique where a hierarchical or flat input design layout or almost flat mask data can be converted
into a favorable hierarchical data which can be directly used by MDP tools for fracturing. A favorable hierarchy is a
hierarchy of cells where polygons within cells do not overlap with each other even if bounding boxes of cells might
overlap with each other. This is an important characteristic which can be intelligently made use of by intra-polygonal
operations like fracturing. Otherwise, a mask data preparation (MDP) tool has to take the responsibility for resolving
overlaps among polygons, which slows down the processing and increases the data size. MDP on a favorable hierarchy
will thus speed up the fracturing or re-fracturing steps and also minimize the output fractured data size, as shown through
the experimental results in the paper.
In the proposed technique, the favorable hierarchy is generated using a modified version of the Lempel-Ziv (LZ) coding
algorithm, which was originally devised for compressing character strings. A hierarchical fracturing algorithm can be
employed to work on the favorable hierarchy generated, which will utilize the property of a favorable hierarchy that
polygons do not overlap with each other. Apart from the obvious runtime benefits, such a favorable hierarchy allows
considerable reduction in fractured data size as most mask data formats allow representation of a hierarchy containing
two levels.
In the UDSM regime of 65 nm and below, a majority of mask layers require Resolution Enhancement Techniques
(RET) to enhance their printability on the wafer. The RET has a huge amount of impact on the layout data both in
terms of size and the polygonal data characteristics. The Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) step would reduce
the original layout hierarchy by a large extent. Moreover, OPC would either add a large number of geometries to
the layout data or would split the original edges in the layout geometries into segments. As a result, the size of the
layout data file would increase manifold which could be several hundreds of gigabytes for a single mask layer.
The growth in layout data size along with more complex polygons introduced during OPC necessitates that the
fracturing tool produce higher quality fracturing with less turn-around-time (TAT) during Mask Data Preparation
(MDP) as well as actual mask-write by the EB machine. The VSB (Variable Shaped Beam) machine differs from
traditional raster based e-beam machines in many ways. The VSB machine writing time as well as the quality of
the masks written by it is significantly affected by the quality of fracturing compared to a raster based mask writer.
The two requirements, namely, of reducing the TAT for MDP and increasing the quality of the mask written by
mask writer usually counteract with each other. In this paper, we propose a scheme that addresses both the issues.
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