Dependence of mask-defect printability and printability criteria on lithography process resolution

Alan R. Stivers; Edita Tejnil

doi:10.1117/12.458279

11 March 2002 Dependence of mask-defect printability and printability criteria on lithography process resolution

Alan R. Stivers, Edita Tejnil

Proceedings Volume 4562, 21st Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.458279
Event: Photomask 2001, 2001, Monterey, CA, United States

Abstract

The industry traditionally uses a single number, the change in the printed line width, to quantify mask defect printability. The measurement of this change is done in the direction perpendicular to a main feature, usually a line. We often ignore the extent of the printed defect parallel to the line even though our intuition tells us it will also contribute to the impact of the defect. If the lithography resolution improves the defects will be better resolved and their printed image will more closely approximate the shape of the defect. This leads to an increase in the line width change of the defect. This leads to very high defect printability in the case of high k1 lithographies, such as extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). Thus, traditional methods of quantifying printability will lead to very stringent mask defect specs for capable lithographies with low mask error enhancement factors. We present an analysis of the electrical impact of gate layer defects and derive an expression that takes the printed defect extent in both directions into consideration. Since the printed defect extent parallel to the line depends on the lithography resolution and, therefore, the lithography process k1 factor, the electrical impact of the mask defect can be shown to be dependent on k1. Finally, we will present a mask defect criterion with explicit k1 dependence and discuss its implication to EUVL.

Citation Download Citation

Alan R. Stivers and Edita Tejnil "Dependence of mask-defect printability and printability criteria on lithography process resolution", Proc. SPIE 4562, 21st Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology, (11 March 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.458279

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