A method is presented for determining the point spread function (PSF) of an electron beam in a scanning electron microscope for the examination of near planar samples. Once measured, PSFs can be used with two or more low-resolution images of a selected area to create a high-resolution reconstructed image of that area. As an example, a 4× improvement in resolution for images is demonstrated for a fine gold particle sample. Since thermionic source instruments have high beam currents associated with large probe sizes, use of this approach implies that high-resolution images can be produced rapidly if the probe diameter is less of a limiting factor. Additionally, very accurate determination of the PSFs can lead to a better understanding of instrument performance as exemplified by very accurate measurement of the beam shape and therefore the degree of astigmatism.

EUV lithography resolves features below 11 nm. However, photonic and atomic variations at these photon energies and dimensions lead to less than 1:109 potential stochastic defects causing device failures in stable manufacturing processes. This study investigates a methodology intended to identify root causes of stochastic defects with potential mitigation paths. Simulation techniques using pseudo random numbers are used to identify failing photonic and chemical event or distribution combinations. Failing combinations occurring in many photon-chemical configurations are thought to have potential mitigation methodologies. Photonic effects demonstrated significant impacts on stochastic defect formation with approximately 73% of the photon seeds resulting in a failure in at least 60% of the trials. The material results were mixed with large failure quantities that demonstrated low impacts. The photonic shot noise based failures were dominating in this study and these failures will not be mitigated by material enhancement alone.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract