Paper
11 March 2002 Understanding the forbidden pitch and assist feature placement
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Optical proximity effect is a well-known phenomenon in photolithography. Such an effect results from the structural interaction between the main feature and the neighboring features. Recent observations have shown that such structural interactions not only affect the critical dimension of the main feature at the image plane, but also the exposure latitude of the main feature. In this paper, it has been shown that the variation of the critical dimension as well as the exposure latitude of the main feature is a direct consequence of light field interference between the main feature and the neighboring features. Depending on the phase of the field produced by the neighboring features, the main feature critical dimension and exposure latitude can be improved by constructive light field interference, or degraded by destructive light field interference. The phase of the field produced by the neighboring features can be shown to be in the location where the field produced by the neighboring features can be shown to be dependent on the pitch as well as the illumination angle. For a given illumination, the forbidden pitch lies in the location where the field produced by the neighboring features interferes with the field of the main feature destructively. The theoretical analysis given here offers the tool to map out the forbidden pitch locations for any feature size and illumination conditions. More importantly, it provides the theoretical ground for illumination design in order to suppress the forbidden pitch phenomenon, and for scattering bar placement to achieve optimal performance as well.
© (2002) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Xuelong Shi, Stephen Hsu, J. Fung Chen, Chungwei Michael Hsu, Robert John Socha, and Mircea V. Dusa "Understanding the forbidden pitch and assist feature placement", Proc. SPIE 4562, 21st Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology, (11 March 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.458261
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CITATIONS
Cited by 7 scholarly publications and 2 patents.
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KEYWORDS
Scattering

Optical lithography

Destructive interference

Light scattering

Reticles

Chromium

Image processing

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