Computational lithography: Exhausting the resolution limits of 193-nm projection lithography systems

Melville, David O. S.; Rosenbluth, Alan E.; Waechter, Andreas; Millstone, Marc; Tirapu-Azpiroz, Jaione; Tian, Kehan; Lai, Kafai; Inoue, Takuya; Sakamoto, Masaharu; Adam, Kostas; Tritchkov, Alexander

doi:10.1116/1.3662090

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 144 publications

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“…OPC has been a life saver for 193-nm exposure tools to be able to resolve sub-50-nm patterns. [30][31][32][33] These are additional corrective elements added to or subtracted from the photomask in order to counteract the diffraction losses. A very simple case can be studied with the presented educational tool.…”

Section: Scenario 10: Importance Of Coherent Light Illumination (Level = 2)mentioning

confidence: 99%

An effective lithography training module adapting semianalytical calculation approaches

2021

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A complete, self-sufficient package is prepared to teach the fundamental concepts of lithography. The adapted semianalytical approaches promise to illustratively create an ideal engaging environment for efficiently training next generation lithographers. The presented educational tool, which integrates the well-known modeling methods from the literature, is shown to capture the photolithography process step by step while offering the students a remote, hands-on feeling from introductory to graduate-level work. The importance of optical and chemistry related parameters are discussed with the aim of creating a useful laboratory assessment package for the educators to be easily integrated into their curriculum.

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Section: Scenario 10: Importance Of Coherent Light Illumination (Level = 2)mentioning

confidence: 99%

An effective lithography training module adapting semianalytical calculation approaches

2021

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“…Photomask optical proximity correction (OPC) and inverse lithography technology (ILT) have become indispensable for improving the performance of lithography processes [1][2][3]. Generally, an OPC or ILT process involves forward modeling known as lithography simulation and an inverse procedure, which aims to optimize the mask layout to minimize and compensate imaging distortion caused by optical proximity effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient representation of mask transmittance functions for vectorial lithography simulations

et al. 2014

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In this paper, a generalized method to efficiently represent the incident-angle-dependent mask transmittance function (MTF) of a thick mask is proposed. This method expands the MTF into a series expansion, which consists of a set of predetermined basis functions weighted by a set of predetermined expansion coefficients. The predetermined basis functions are independent of the incident angles and thus may be computed offline and stored, while the expansion coefficients depend only on the incident angles and can be rapidly calculated online. Near-field and optical image simulations of thick masks have demonstrated the excellent accuracy and superior speed performance.

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“…The shrinking resolution of optical lithography relies heavily on resolution enhancement techniques (RETs), such as off-axis illumination, optical proximity correction, and source mask optimization [1][2][3]. Mask optimization is among the most important because it is able to overcome the optical proximity effects caused by diffraction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust and efficient inverse mask synthesis with basis function representation

Liu

et al. 2014

J. Opt. Soc. Am. A

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Mask optimization is essential in the resolution scaling of optical lithography due to its strong ability to overcome the optical proximity effect. However, it often demands extensive computation in solving the nonlinear optimization problem with a large number of variables. In this paper, we use a set of basis functions to represent the mask patterns, and incorporate this representation into the mask optimization at both the nominal plane and various defocus conditions. The representation coefficients are updated according to the gradient to the coefficients, which can be easily obtained from the gradient to the pixel variables. To ease the computation of the gradient, we use an adaptive method that divides the optimization into two steps, in which a small number of kernels is used as the first step, and more kernels are used for fine optimization. Simulations performed on two test patterns demonstrate that this method can improve the optimization efficiency by several times, and the optimized patterns have better manufacturability compared with regular pixel-based representation.

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Computational lithography: Exhausting the resolution limits of 193-nm projection lithography systems

Cited by 18 publications

References 144 publications

An effective lithography training module adapting semianalytical calculation approaches

An effective lithography training module adapting semianalytical calculation approaches

Efficient representation of mask transmittance functions for vectorial lithography simulations

Robust and efficient inverse mask synthesis with basis function representation

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