Development of a captured image simulator for the differential interference contrast microscopes aiming to design 199 nm mask inspection tools

Masataka Shiratsuchi; Yoshinori Honguh; Ryoichi Hirano D.D.S.; Riki Ogawa; Masatoshi Hirono; Takehiko Nomura

doi:10.1117/12.747909

1 November 2007 Development of a captured image simulator for the differential interference contrast microscopes aiming to design 199 nm mask inspection tools

Masataka Shiratsuchi, Yoshinori Honguh, Ryoichi Hirano D.D.S., Riki Ogawa, Masatoshi Hirono, Takehiko Nomura

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6730, Photomask Technology 2007; 67304W (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.747909
Event: SPIE Photomask Technology, 2007, Monterey, California, United States

Abstract

Recently, technologies of ArF laser exposure tools and alternating phase shifting masks (Alt-PSM) are expected to be used in actual production. To utilize such newly developed technologies, it is inevitable to develop a mask inspection technology to check them properly. But it is currently difficult to check them precisely because sufficient image contrast is hard to obtain with any conventional mask inspection tools. Among many observation methods, the differential interference contrast (DIC) is one of a few methods that can be used to observe a differentiated phase shift of transmitted light of an object with high resolution. To study precisely the performance of this optical configuration, we built a new captured image simulator in which Wollaston prisms were modeled as a kind of phase modulation plates. We built this simulator as an extension of the captured image simulator we reported formerly), which is based on Rigorous Coupled- Wave Analysis (RCWA) to calculate diffractions; this enables us to properly treat effects of polarization, high NA, and 3-dimensional mask structures. We applied this simulator to see sensitivities of DIC against bumps and divots with various sizes. We found that the image contrast for small phase defects 20 to 50 nm in sizes is much higher in DIC microscopes than in conventional optical setup with coherence factor less than 1. We also found the dependence of captured images on polarizations and optical axis directions. We expect our simulator to be a useful tool for studying, designing, and developing mask inspection tools.

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Masataka Shiratsuchi, Yoshinori Honguh, Ryoichi Hirano D.D.S., Riki Ogawa, Masatoshi Hirono, and Takehiko Nomura "Development of a captured image simulator for the differential interference contrast microscopes aiming to design 199 nm mask inspection tools", Proc. SPIE 6730, Photomask Technology 2007, 67304W (1 November 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.747909

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