Mask CD uniformity improvement by electron scanning exposure based Global Loading Effect Correction

Rivan Li; Eric Tian; Irene Shi; Eric Guo; Max Lu

doi:10.1117/12.2192988

9 July 2015 Mask CD uniformity improvement by electron scanning exposure based Global Loading Effect Correction

Rivan Li, Eric Tian, Irene Shi, Eric Guo, Max Lu

Proceedings Volume 9658, Photomask Japan 2015: Photomask and Next-Generation Lithography Mask Technology XXII; 96580S (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2192988
Event: Photomask Japan 2015, 2015, Yokohama, Japan

Abstract

Critical Dimension (CD) Uniformity is one of the necessary parameters to assure good performance and reliable functionality of any integrated circuit (IC), and towards the advanced technology node 28nm and beyond, corresponding CD Uniformity becomes more and more crucial. It is found that bad mask CD Uniformity is a significant error source at 28nm process. The CD Uniformity on mask, if not controlled well, will badly impact wafer CD performance, and it has been well-studied that CD Uniformity issue from gate line-width in transistors would affect the device performance directly. In this paper we present a novel solution for mask global CD uniformity error correction, which is called as global loading effect correction (GLEC) method and applied nesting in the mask exposure map during the electron beam exposure. There are factors such as global chip layout, writing sequence and chip pattern density distribution (Global Loading), that work on the whole mask CD Uniformity, especially Global Loading is the key factor related to mask global CD error. From our experimental results, different pattern density distribution on mask significantly influenced the final mask CD Uniformity: the mask with undulating pattern density distribution provides much worse CD Uniformity than that with uniform one. Therefore, a GLEC model based on pattern density has been created to compensate the global error during the electron beam exposure, which has been proved to be efficacious to improve mask global CD Uniformity performance. Furthermore, it ’s also revealed that pattern type is another important impact factor, and GLEC coefficient need be modified due to the specific pattern type (e.g. dense line-space only, iso-space only or an average of them) to improve the corresponding mask CD uniformity.

Citation Download Citation

Rivan Li, Eric Tian, Irene Shi, Eric Guo, and Max Lu "Mask CD uniformity improvement by electron scanning exposure based Global Loading Effect Correction", Proc. SPIE 9658, Photomask Japan 2015: Photomask and Next-Generation Lithography Mask Technology XXII, 96580S (9 July 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2192988

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
5 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Photomasks

Critical dimension metrology

Semiconducting wafers

Electron beams

Integrated circuits

Transistors

Integrated circuit design

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years