Mr. Khiem T. Nguyen Profile

Khiem T. Nguyen

Senior Applications Manager

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Publications (1)

This will count as one of your downloads.

You will have access to both the presentation and article (if available).

DOWNLOAD NOW

This content is available for download via your institution's subscription. To access this item, please sign in to your personal account.

Email or Username Forgot your username?

Password Forgot your password?

Show

Keep me signed in

No SPIE account? Create an account

Proceedings Article | 30 December 1999 Paper

Effects of mask error factor on process window capability

Dan Schurz, Warren Flack, Simon Cohen, Thomas Newman, Khiem Nguyen

Proceedings Volume 3873, (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.373317

KEYWORDS: Critical dimension metrology, Reticles, Cadmium, Photomasks, Semiconducting wafers, Photoresist materials, Lithography, Computer aided design, Tolerancing, Scanning electron microscopy

Read Abstract +

In the photolithographic process, critical dimensions (CD) of exposed features in photoresist need to be controlled to within a specified tolerance related to the nominal feature size. A portion of this tolerance budget is consumed by variations in CD on the photomask. At low k₁ factor, a number of parameters in the lithography system impact linearity including lens aberrations, defocus, exposure, partial coherence, and photoresist contrast. The combined effect of these parameters is that errors in the mask CDs are not transferred to the wafer in direct proportion to the optical reduction value of the lithography system. This Mask Error Factor (MEF) becomes a significant problem as it consumes a larger than anticipated portion of the CD tolerance budget. This paper will discuss experimentally evaluated MEF using a 4X i-line stepper for a range of feature sizes from subwavelength to approximately twice the exposure wavelength. A test reticle was built with isolated lines from 200 nm to 600 nm in 12.5 nm increments at 1 X. CD measurements on the reticle were compared to corresponding CD measurements on the wafer in order to establish both linearity and MEF curves for the lithography system. MEF values were also determined across a process window for multiple feature sizes. The MEF was observed to be less than 1.4 for CDs greater than 330 nm (k₁ equals 0.5) throughout the process window. However, the MEF rises rapidly to over 3 for CD values smaller than 300 nm (k₁ equals 0.45) at nominal focus and exposure. Changes in exposure were not observed to have a noticeable impact on MEF while focus offsets were observed to result in significant increases in MEF. These results indicate that MEF has a much larger impact on focus latitude than on exposure latitude. As a result the process window will be compressed more in focus than in exposure.

My Library

You currently do not have any folders to save your paper to! Create a new folder below.

Folder Name

Folder Description

View contact details

UPDATE YOUR PROFILE

Is this your profile? Update it now.

Sign into your SPIE.org account

Don’t have a profile and want one?

Create an account on SPIE.org

Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks. You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*

*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please sign in to access your institution's subscriptions.

To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on SPIE.org.

ORGANIZATIONAL
Sign in with credentials provided by your organization.

Organizational Username

Organizational Password

Show/Hide Password

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:

Non-members: ADD TO CART

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years