Emulation of reproduction of masks corrected by local density variations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9535244-B2
Application number	US-201514594851-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 12, 2015
Priority date	Jan 13, 2014
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

A method is provided for emulating the imaging of a scanner mask pattern to expose wafers via a mask inspection microscope, in which the mask was corrected by introducing scattering centers. The method includes determining a correlation between the first values of at least one characteristic of aerial images of the mask pattern as produced by a mask inspection microscope and the second values of the at least one characteristic of aerial images of the mask pattern as produced by a scanner, recording a first aerial image of the mask pattern with the mask inspection microscope, determining the first values of the at least one characteristic from the first aerial image, and determining the second values of the at least one characteristic of the first aerial image, using the correlation. A mask inspection microscope is also provided for emulating the imaging of a mask pattern of a scanner to expose wafers, in which the mask was corrected by introducing scattering centers.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for emulating the imaging of a scanner mask pattern to expose wafers via a mask inspection microscope, in which the mask includes scattering centers configured to scatter a portion of projection light that illuminates the mask, the method comprising:
determining a correlation between first values of at least one characteristic of aerial images of a mask pattern produced by a mask inspection microscope and second values of the at least one characteristic of aerial images of the mask pattern produced by a scanner;
recording a first aerial image of a mask pattern using the mask inspection microscope;
determining the first values of the at least one characteristic from the first aerial image; and
determining the second values of the at least one characteristic of the first aerial image, using the correlation.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the illumination field of the scanner is greater than the illumination field of the mask inspection microscope.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the illumination field of the scanner exhibits a diameter d for which the following applies:

d
>

d
i

=

4
⁢

l
p

⁢

⁢

tan
⁡

(

arcsin
⁡

(

NA
W

4
⁢

n
m

)

)

where NA W is the wafer-side numerical aperture of the scanner being emulated,
n M is the refraction index of a substrate of the mask, and
l p is a distance from the scattering centers to a pattern-bearing surface of the mask.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the characteristic of aerial images of the mask pattern as produced by the scanner is determined from a dimension of a mask pattern that was produced by the scanner on a wafer.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the at least one characteristic comprises an attenuation of transmission or reflectivity of the mask caused by the scattering centers.

6. The method of claim 5 in which an attenuation of aerial images of the mask as produced by the scanner is determined by the dimension of a mask pattern that was produced by the scanner on a wafer and from the aerial images of the mask as produced by a mask inspection microscope.

7. The method of claim 5 in which a threshold value Th 1 is determined to determine an attenuation from an aerial image of the mask inspection microscope, wherein the dimensions correspond to the dimensions on the wafer.

8. The method of claim 5 in which the aerial image was recorded by a mask that was not corrected and wherein a corrected threshold value corrTh is calculated from the threshold value Th 1 ,
wherein corrTh is determined according to:
predetermining a critical dimension target value TargetCD for the dimension of a calibration mask,
recording an aerial image of the calibration mask,
determining critical dimensions MicroCD measured using the mask inspection microscope from the aerial image using the threshold value Th 1 ,
measuring a critical dimension WaferCDPre from a wafer exposed by a scanner,
calculating a pre-correlation factor PCF in accordance with

PCF
=

Δ
⁢

⁢
WaferCDpre

Δ
⁢

⁢
MicroCD

where TargetCD−MicroCD=ΔMicroCD and TargetCD−WaferCDpre=ΔWaferCDpre,
determining a threshold value Th TargetCD for the target value TargetCD of the dimensions from the aerial image of the mask, and
determining a corrected threshold vale corrTh in accordance with
corr Th=Th TargetCD +( Th 1− Th TargetCD )× PCF.

9. The method of claim 5 in which the correlation comprise a quotient TC of the attenuation determined from the aerial images of the mask and of the attenuation of the mask determined from the pattern resulting from the exposure of a wafer.

10. The method of claim 1 in which the characteristic is the dimension of a pattern characteristic of the mask, in particular a critical dimension.

11. The method of claim 10 in which the correlation is a function of the critical dimension of the microscope and of the critical dimension of a pattern of an exposed wafer.

12. A method for determining the dimensions of a pattern on a mask, the method comprising:
determining a threshold value of intensity Th A ,
determining a critical dimensions target value TargetCD for the dimensions of a calibration mask;
recording an aerial image of the calibration mask;
determining critical dimensions MicroCD from the aerial image of the calibration mask at the threshold Th A ;
measuring a critical dimension WaferCDpre from a wafer exposed by a scanner;
calculating a pre-correlation factor PCF in accordance with

PCF
=

Δ
⁢

⁢
WaferCDpre

Δ
⁢

⁢
MicroCD

where TargetCD−MicroCD=ΔMicroCD and TargetCD−WaferCDpre=ΔWaferCDpre;
recording an aerial image of a mask;
determining a threshold value Th TargetCD for the target value TargetCD of the dimensions from the aerial image;
determining a corrected threshold value corrTh in accordance with
corr Th=Th TargetCD +( Th A −Th TargetCD )× PCF ; and

determining the dimensions at the threshold value corrTh from the aerial image.

13. A mask inspection microscope for emulating the imaging of a pattern of a mask of a scanner to expose wafers, in which the mask includes scattering centers configured to scatter a portion of projection light that illuminates the mask, comprising:
a lens to image the mask on a detector;
a light source and illumination optics to illuminate the mask, wherein an illumination field on the mask has a diameter d, wherein

Assignees

• Zeiss Carl Smt Gmbh

Inventors

• Seitz Holger
• Thaler Thomas
• Matejka Ulrich
• Rademacher Thomas

Classifications

• G03F1/70

  Adapting basic layout or design of masks to lithographic process requirements, e.g., second iteration correction of mask patterns for imaging · CPC title

• G03F1/84

  Inspecting · CPC title

• G02B21/365 Primary

  Control or image processing arrangements for digital or video microscopes (G02B21/361, G02B21/362 take precedence) · CPC title

• G03F1/44

  Testing or measuring features, e.g. grid patterns, focus monitors, sawtooth scales or notched scales · CPC title