Through the adoption of EUV lithography and an increase in numerical aperture (NA), smaller and more complex patterns can now be achieved through single exposure while significantly enhancing throughput. However, due to the variations in pattern shapes and densities, optical proximity correction (OPC) is required, leading to increased computational costs. This study aims to reduce line width variation on wafers and minimize OPC through source optimization. The process was performed under 0.33NA and 0.55NA conditions with a low-n absorbent material. The target pattern was a line and space pattern, focusing on making the same line width among various pitches. High pattern fidelity could be achieved by optimizing the source, while maintaining sufficient imaging performance.
In optical lithography process, a critical step involves projecting the optimal dose of energy onto the photoresist to fabricate the patterns of integrated circuits. These precise energy doses utilized for pattern projection across the wafer unavoidably induce local temperature increases, resulting in nano-level thermal deformation. The industry attempted to mitigate the effects of wafer heating by applying thermal actuators on the wafer chuck system. However, the criticality of wafer heating issue lies in the variation of thermal deformation across die and wafer, contingent upon the underlayer structures and materials employed. Even with equivalent dose, the gap of thermal deformation stemming from the underlayer configurations could contribute significantly to overlay budget constraints. Thermal deformation could constitute a large portion of the entire overlay budget when the same application is used for different underlayer structures without deformation correction.
The ongoing shrinkage in minimum pitch has necessitated an even stricter and more restrictive error budget. Paradoxically, as the pitch decreases, image performances (e.g., NILS, image contrast) deteriorate, which necessitates compensation through dose adjustments, consequently resulting in thermal issues in the resist. Therefore, to meet the stringent requirements for the feature size, it is necessary to consider physical material properties such as deformation effects in dose optimization and overlay control. In this study, the systematic simulation on wafer heating have been explored to understand the deformation mechanism induced by EUV exposure. We found the thermal deformation as a significant factor leading to image fading and overlay errors. Furthermore, we discovered that deformation varied depending on the location in field-to-field, die-to-die, and within-slit. Particularly, the concentrated mechanical load at the edge domain intensified thermal stress. Additionally, through thermal-mechanical analysis based on the resist type, we explored the correlation between deformation and material properties. Our investigation revealed that the primary contributing factor is the dose energy rather than material properties.
The extreme ultraviolet (EUV) pellicle on the EUV mask is used to prevent the image distortion, and the lifetime of the pellicle is important because it is directly related to the yield. However, particle defects can significantly impact the lifetime of the pellicle, causing thermal or mechanical damage such as deformation or increased temperature. To study these effects, we explored how particle defects affect the pellicle, including scenarios where defects on the pellicle or collide with it. We found that there was no temperature and stress accumulation with repeated exposure of the pellicle regardless of the defect exitance. The collision of flying particles gave little mechanical effect with the known impulse inside the scanner. The metal-silicide core pellicles showed better thermal stability compared to the poly-silicon core pellicles and that could be the reason why metal-silicide pellicles showed longer lifetime.
The pellicle prevents image errors due to contaminated particles in the EUV mask and protects the mask for a stable process. However, the lifetime of the pellicle could be shortened due to deformation and destruction caused by the collision of the particle defects in the chamber. Therefore, in order to increase the lifetime of the pellicle, it is required to develop an optimal pellicle material and structure that is resistant to deformation and destruction and has excellent mechanical stability. Accordingly, it is necessary to know the deformation caused by the particle collision and estimate the lifetime of the pellicles with different mechanical stability. In this study, we simulate the collision of particle defects for the pellicle and compare the mechanical stability depending on the single-layer pellicle materials.
For finer linewidth patterning, 0.55 numerical aperture (NA) should be used instead of the existing 0.33 NA. In 0.55 NA extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL), to alleviate the mask 3D effect and stochastic noise, which is stronger, it is necessary to develop an optimal phase shift mask (PSM) and multilayer mask for high NA. Mask structure is used PSM with composed of Ru-alloy/TaBO and multilayer composed of ruthenium (Ru)/silicon (Si), which is expected to be effective in mitigating mask 3D effect and improving imaging performance. The absorber reflectance was checked which is changed by variables such as pattern existence, target CD, and pitch ratio. In addition, by examining the relationship between the change in absorber reflectance and normalized image log slope (NILS), it was determined whether the mask structure for high NA was changed by the target pattern changes.
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