Since the design nodes gradually decreased and EUV production became reality, the data volume is continuously increasing due to Hard OPC & Flare Correction. Multi-Beam Mask Writers (MBMW) enabled mask exposures with curvilinear and circle pattern that have not been possible before. This soon led to an increase in the number of vertexes of design data and an increase in Mask Data Preparation turnaround times (MDP TAT). A data flow based on the newly developed MBW-2 file format was developed jointly with Nippon Control System and IMS nanofabrication and significantly improved MDP TAT. The effect was confirmed by verifying it with actual data using large-volume data and curvilinear data EUV masks exposed on MBMW. In addition, the MDP TAT was further improved by studying file write method. In this paper, we introduce the concept and application of the new data flow. Furthermore we will present the results on TAT and output file sizes. Finally, we will discuss each step in the data flow in detail.
Sub Resolution Assist Features (SRAFs) are now the main option for enabling low-k1 photolithograpy. These technical challenges for the 45nm node, along with the insurmountable difficulties in EUV lithography, have driven the semiconductor mask-maker into the low-k1 lithography era under the pressure of ever shrinking feature sizes. Extending lithography towards lower k1 puts a strong demand on the resolution enhancement technique (RET), and better exposure tool. However, current mask making equipments and technologies are facing their limits. Particularly, due to smaller feature size, the critical dimension (CD) linearity of both main cell patterns and SRAFs on a mask is deviated from perfect condition differently. There are certain discrepancies of CD linearity from ideal case. For example, as the CD size gets smaller, the bigger CD discrepancy is to be.
There are many technologies, such as hard-mask process and negative-resist process and so on. One of them is an assist feature correction, which can be applied to achieve better CD control. In other words, in order to compensate this CD linearity deviation, the new correction algorithm with SRAFs is applied in data process flow. In this paper, we will describe in detail the implement of our study and present results on a full 65nm node with experimental data.
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