Effect of negative-tone mask lithography on lens aberration phenomena

Kouichirou Tsujita; Yuuji Yamauchi; Atsushi Ueno; Wataru Wakamiya; Tadashi Nishimura

doi:10.1117/12.354350

26 July 1999 Effect of negative-tone mask lithography on lens aberration phenomena

Kouichirou Tsujita, Yuuji Yamauchi, Atsushi Ueno, Wataru Wakamiya, Tadashi Nishimura

Proceedings Volume 3679, Optical Microlithography XII; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.354350
Event: Microlithography '99, 1999, Santa Clara, CA, United States

Abstract

In this paper, the method to decrease lens aberration phenomena is presented. The performance of mask tone is compared experimentally and by simulation for actual conditions of 0.18um lithography. The stepper with some aberration was used with several modified illumination conditions. The effectiveness of negative tone lithography was confirmed experimentally. CD variations of sub-dense or isolated line patterns in intrafield are improved from about 30-40nm to 10-20nm for every illumination condition. For overlay, the placement error of isolate line patterns is improved from around 10nm to 5nm. By simulation, the phenomena are investigated for the same illumination conditions are experimental ones. It is proven that negative tone mask lithography is less sensitive to aberration rather than positive one, which corresponds to smaller intrafield CD and overlay variation errors. The reason why negative tone mask lithography is effective is investigated. From this study, it can be concluded that negative tone mask lithography is more robust for lens aberration phenomena than positive one for such pattern layer which consists mainly of sub-dense and isolated patterns as gate layer. In the viewpoint of production, with this method, even the stepper which has some aberration can get CD and overlay controllability to be suitable for 0.18um lithography.

Citation Download Citation

Kouichirou Tsujita, Yuuji Yamauchi, Atsushi Ueno, Wataru Wakamiya, and Tadashi Nishimura "Effect of negative-tone mask lithography on lens aberration phenomena", Proc. SPIE 3679, Optical Microlithography XII, (26 July 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.354350

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