Image degradation due to phase effects in chromeless phase lithography

Karsten Bubke; Martin Sczyrba; K. T. Park; Ralf Neubauer; Rainer Pforr; Jens Reichelt; Ralf Ziebold

doi:10.1117/12.685983

20 October 2006 Image degradation due to phase effects in chromeless phase lithography

Karsten Bubke, Martin Sczyrba, K. T. Park, Ralf Neubauer, Rainer Pforr, Jens Reichelt, Ralf Ziebold

Proceedings Volume 6349, Photomask Technology 2006; 634913 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.685983
Event: SPIE Photomask Technology, 2006, Monterey, California, United States

Abstract

Chromeless Phase Lithography (CPL) is discussed as interesting option for the 65nm node and beyond offering high resolution and small Mask Error Enhancement Factor. However, it was shown recently that at high NA CPL masks can exhibit large polarization and also phase effects. A well known phase effect occurring for CPL semi dense lines are through focus Bossung tilts. However, another manifestation of phase effects for dense lines and spaces is a reduced contrast for a symmetrical off-axis illumination due to phase errors between 0^th and 1^st diffraction order. In this paper it is shown that these phase effects can lead to a significant contrast loss for dense features smaller than 60nm half pitch. While also present for trench structures, the contrast reduction is more pronounced for mesa style structures. It is shown that for mesa structures an adjustment of etch depth can not recover an effective pi-phase shift. Furthermore, significant polarization effects are observed. As an example, the optimum mesa structure for TE polarization is shifted to small lines. For an experimental validation, a CPL mask containing dense lines and spaces was fabricated. Their imaging performance was characterized with an AIMS 45i offering NA's greater than 1 and linearly polarized illumination as well as by wafer printing. Gratings with pitches down to 100 nm with varying duty cycles were measured with TE, TM and unpolarized dipole illumination. Very good agreement between measurement and simulation results confirmed the validity of theoretical predictions.

Citation Download Citation

Karsten Bubke, Martin Sczyrba, K. T. Park, Ralf Neubauer, Rainer Pforr, Jens Reichelt, and Ralf Ziebold "Image degradation due to phase effects in chromeless phase lithography", Proc. SPIE 6349, Photomask Technology 2006, 634913 (20 October 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.685983

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