Effects of aberration and flare on lithographic performance of SFET

Yuusuke Tanaka; Hajime Aoyama; Kazuo Tawarayama; Shunko Magoshi; Seiichiro Shirai; Hiroyuki Tanaka

doi:10.1117/12.771626

21 March 2008 Effects of aberration and flare on lithographic performance of SFET

Yuusuke Tanaka, Hajime Aoyama, Kazuo Tawarayama, Shunko Magoshi, Seiichiro Shirai, Hiroyuki Tanaka

Proceedings Volume 6921, Emerging Lithographic Technologies XII; 69211D (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.771626
Event: SPIE Advanced Lithography, 2008, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

The effects of aberration and flare on the lithographic performance of the EUV small-field exposure tool (SFET) were evaluated. Simulation results indicated that the effect of aberration on the image contrast of line-and-space (L&S) patterns should be small. In exposure experiments, 26-45-nm L&S patterns were successfully fabricated under annular illumination (σ=0.3/0.7). A key factor limiting resolution should be resist performance. Simulation results also indicated that the astigmatic aberration could produce a focal shift of about 60 nm between horizontal and vertical L&S patterns. The experimentally obtained focus shift agreed well with the simulation results. Dense 32-45-nm contact-hole (C/H) patterns were also successfully fabricated under annular illumination (σ=0.3/0.5). Due to astigmatic aberration, the C/H patterns were deformed at defocused positions, but they were almost circular at the best focus position. The flare of the projection optics measured by the Kirk method was 11% over a flare range of 1-100 μm. The effects of the 11% flare were evaluated using dark- and bright-field 32-nm L&S patterns. It was found that the top loss and line-width roughness (LWR) of the resist were larger for bright-field than for dark-field patterns. To reduce the impact of flare, we need EUV resists that are more robust with regard to flare. A comparison of the measured point spread function (PSF) of the flare and the calculated PSF revealed good agreement for long-range flare but some difference for short-range flare.

Citation Download Citation

Yuusuke Tanaka, Hajime Aoyama, Kazuo Tawarayama, Shunko Magoshi, Seiichiro Shirai, and Hiroyuki Tanaka "Effects of aberration and flare on lithographic performance of SFET", Proc. SPIE 6921, Emerging Lithographic Technologies XII, 69211D (21 March 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.771626

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