The absorption of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light by the mask-protecting pellicle could be the most critical problem preventing widespread EUV adoption because EUV source power is still too limited to facilitate its use in mass production. We found that transmission loss due to the EUV pellicle could be compensated through the use of proper optical proximity correction (OPC) applied to the mask-pellicle system. Patterning results of optical proximity correction corrected masks with different transmission pellicles are shown for various one-dimensional and two-dimensional patterns. From the results, it is clearly shown that we do not need to increase the dose to avoid the throughput loss, even when using a pellicle with 80% one-pass transmission. The OPC process described in this paper can speed EUV adoption by allowing the use of much thicker films with higher absorption.
The absorption of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) pellicle could be the most critical problem because the EUV source power is still not good enough for achieving mass production. We found that the transmission loss due to the EUV pellicle could be compensated through proper optical proximity correction (OPC) of a pellicled mask. Patterning results of OPCed masks with different transmission pellicles are shown for various 1D and 2D patterns. From the results, it is clearly shown that we do not need to increase the dose to avoid the throughput loss even if a pellicle which has 80 % one-pass transmission is used. Therefore, the EUV pellicle manufacturing would be much easier because we can use much thicker film with higher absorption.
Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is considered as one of the viable solutions for production of the next generation integrated devices. EUV mask defect control becomes more critical issue in order to sustain the quality of wafer fabrication process. Since pellicle is the essential component to prevent patterning deformations caused by particle defects on EUV mask[1-2], EUV OPC (optical proximity correction) that takes into account for pellicle effects on imaging quality is required for achieving better pattern fidelity and critical dimension control. In this study, image blurring effect induced by the EUV mask pellicle on mask pattern structures was investigated and it was found that the localized short-range OPC using commercial software performed as desired considering transmission intensity loss due to pellicle. For experiment, edge placement error differences of the same 2D logic patterns with 16 nm half pitch with and without pellicle were compared. Finally, a method was suggested how patterning throughput loss caused by the transmission loss can be compensated by EUV OPC, which may allow pellicle transmission even below 90%.
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