Backside defect printability for contact layer with different reticle blank material

Guoxiang Ning; Christian Holfeld; Daniel Fischer; Paul Ackmann; Andre Holfeld; Karin Kurth; Martin Sczyrba; Tino Hertzsch; Rolf Seltmann; Angeline Ho; Fang Hong GN

doi:10.1117/12.958607

8 November 2012 Backside defect printability for contact layer with different reticle blank material

Guoxiang Ning, Christian Holfeld, Daniel Fischer, Paul Ackmann, Andre Holfeld, Karin Kurth, Martin Sczyrba, Tino Hertzsch, Rolf Seltmann, Angeline Ho, Fang Hong GN

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8522, Photomask Technology 2012; 85221X (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.958607
Event: SPIE Photomask Technology, 2012, Monterey, California, United States

Abstract

Backside defects are out of focus during wafer exposure by the mask thickness and cannot be directly imaged on wafer. However, backside defects will induce transmission variation during wafer exposure. When the size of backside defect is larger than 200 microns, the shadow of such particles will locally change the illumination conditions of the mask patterns and may result in a long range critical dimension (CD) variation on wafer depending on numerical aperture (NA) and pupil shape. Backside defects will affect both wafer CD and critical dimension uniformity (CDU), especially for two-dimensional (2D) structures. This paper focuses on the printability of backside defects on contact layer using annular and quadrupole illumination mode, as well as using different reticle blank material. It also targets for gaining better understanding of critical sizes of backside defects on contact layer for different reticle blanks. We have designed and manufactured two test reticles with repeating patterns of 28nm and 40nm technology node of contact layers. Programmed chrome defects of varying size are placed on the backside opposite to the repeating front side patterns in order to measure the spatial variation of transmission and wafer CD. The test mask was printed on a bare silicon wafer, and the printed features measured for size by spatial sampling. We have investigated two contact layers with different illumination conditions. One is advance binary with single exposure; another is phase shift mask with double exposure. Wafer CD variation for different backside defect sizes are demonstrated for the two contact layers. The comparison between backside defect size with inter-field and intra-field CD variation is also discussed.

Citation Download Citation

Guoxiang Ning, Christian Holfeld, Daniel Fischer, Paul Ackmann, Andre Holfeld, Karin Kurth, Martin Sczyrba, Tino Hertzsch, Rolf Seltmann, Angeline Ho, and Fang Hong GN "Backside defect printability for contact layer with different reticle blank material", Proc. SPIE 8522, Photomask Technology 2012, 85221X (8 November 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.958607

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
9 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Critical dimension metrology

Semiconducting wafers

Reticles

Photomasks

Phase shifts

Binary data

Printing

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years