Use of line-width error detection for quality control in reticle fabrication

Abstract

As design rules in high-end photo-lithographic reticles become tighter, the monitoring of line-width variations becomes more vital in the quality control of advance reticle manufacturing processes. In this paper a new concept of operation is presented, for using an inspection tool in the monitoring of line-width variations for the purpose improving such quality control. The inspection tool used in this paper, is Orbot-Applied's RT8000ES Reticle Inspection tool, in which the newly developed Line Width Error Detector (LWED) is embedded.