Influence of the prominent charging effect on the precision of measuring EUV mask features using CD-SEM was studied. The dimensions of EUV mask features continuously measured by CD-SEM gradually varied because of the charging. The charging effect on the measured CD variation mainly consists of three factors: 1) shift of the incident points of primary electrons deflected by the surface charge, 2) distortions of the profiles of secondary electron signal intensity caused by the deflection of the secondary electrons, 3) deviation of the maximum slope points of the secondary electron signal intensity due to the variation of the image contrast. For those three factors described above, how the material constant affect the CD variation measured by CD-SEM is discussed.
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