Spectroscopic ellipsometry for lithography front-end level CD control: a complete analysis for production integration

Herisson, David; Neira, D.; Fernand, Cyril; Thony, Philippe; Henry, Daniel; Kremer, Stephanie; Polli, Marco; Guevremont, Marco; Elazami, Assim

doi:10.1117/12.485031

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The method, coined scatterometry, is remarkably sensitive, even when the structure features are much smaller than the wavelength of the light, often with precisions in the subnanometer regime [1]. For that reason, the semiconductor industry has embraced scatterometry as a method for monitoring and controlling process [2,3]. Scatterometry, however, requires significant a priori knowledge of the periodic structure, usually a grating, and is subject, like any measurement technique, to numerous sources of error.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective medium approximations for modeling optical reflectance from gratings with rough edges

2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Line edge roughness (LER) has been identified as a potential source of uncertainty in optical scatterometry measurements. Characterizing the effect of LER on optical scatterometry signals is required to assess the uncertainty of the measurement. However, rigorous approaches to modeling the structures that are needed to simulate LER can be computationally expensive. In this work, we compare the effect of LER on scatterometry signals computed using an effective medium approximation (EMA) to those computed with realizations of rough interfaces. We find that for correlation lengths much less than the wavelength but greater than the rms roughness, an anisotropic EMA provides a satisfactory approximation in the cases studied.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective medium approximations for modeling optical reflectance from gratings with rough edges

2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The currently used scanning electron microscope-based (SEM) technology is limited to surface CD measurements, and it cannot be applied to side wall angle, undercut, or simultaneous compositional measurements for fin-based, field effect transistor topologies such as 3D FinFETs. Several optical methods with comparative simplicity and high performance have been developed 2,3 , but these approaches are restricted by the kinds of objects they can inspect. The recently proposed through-focus scanning optical microscopy (TSOM) method offers optical inspection of a wide class of objects with sub-nanometer accuracy based on precise scattered light intensity distribution analysis in the near-focus region using a CCD camera.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%