Model based hybrid proximity effect correction scheme combining dose modulation and shape adjustments

Abstract

Articles you may be interested inHydrogen silsesquioxane on SOI proximity and microloading effects correction from a single 1D characterization sample J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 32, 06F511 (2014); 10.1116/1.4901567 Three-dimensional proximity effect correction for large-scale uniform patterns J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 29, 06F314 (2011); 10.1116/1.3660785 True three-dimensional proximity effect correction in electron-beam lithography Proximity effect correction using blur map in electron projection lithography J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 23, 3188 (2005); 10.1116/1.2101791 Dose, shape, and hybrid modifications for PYRAMID in electron beam proximity effect correctionThe authors present a general approach to combine model-based dose modulations and shape modifications into a hybrid proximity effects correction (PEC) scheme for electron beam lithography. The authors simplify this scheme significantly by using an appropriate dose correction strategy. This allows us to use an existing optical proximity correction tool for the shape adjustments. This hybrid PEC scheme is demonstrated by computing corrections for simple test patterns as well as a more complex pattern. The model used corresponds to an electron multibeam tool with an acceleration voltage of 50 kV. It predicts resist contours from a written dose distribution. The authors evaluate the quality of the results both for nominal process conditions and in the presence of process variations. The results are compared against the corresponding results for a correction using only dose modulation. The authors also use the hybrid scheme to compensate intentional overexposure by shape adjustments and include these results in the comparison so that the impact of overexposure on robustness against process variations can be determined.

Parametric optimization of visible wavelength gold lattice geometries for improved plasmon-enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy

“…This scattering phenomenon ultimately results in either the enlargement and/or reduction of the designed feature sizes [208] and affects critical dimension accuracy. The proximity effect is usually observed when writing high-density features or repeating patterns, as reported by several groups [208][209][210][211][212][213]. The extent of the proximity effect has been shown to relate to the acceleration voltage of the electron beam.…”

“…Subsequently, the exposed or non-exposed regions of the resist are removed by a special solvent (i.e., development). EBL grants high-density micro-to nano-scale feature resolution and does not suffer from diffraction limitations characteristic of typical optical lithography methods such as photolithography [199][200][201][202][203][204][205][206][207][208][209][210][211][212][213][214][215]. Although EBL does have a wide variety of advantages, it is time consuming for some processes resulting in lower throughput [214][215].…”

Quantifying the impact of proximity error correction on plasmonic metasurfaces [Invited]

“…1(b) are comparable to the beam broadening (150 nm). Therefore, shape-correction provides a more controlled approach to PEC [18,19] and was chosen for this work. Small "serifs", either additions or cutouts, are added to the structure, see Fig.…”

“…1(c). Previous reports [19][20][21][22] have shown that this approach (and other intra-structure PEC) increases the fabrication fidelity, but they neglected to quantify the effect on the optical performance of the fabricated device, relying on scanning electron microscope images alone to judge device quality.…”

Proximity error correction method for continuous moving stage electron beam writing

“…2,3 Various proximity effect correction schemes have been developed to overcome this problem. However, when this method is used to fabricate very small and dense structures, inherent resist resolution, the electron-beam diameter, and proximity effects from backscattered electrons pose a very serious challenge.…”