Rigorous EUV mask simulator using 2D and 3D waveguide methods

Zhengrong Zhu; Kevin Lucas; Jonathan L. Cobb; Scott Daniel Hector; Andrzej J. Strojwas

doi:10.1117/12.484963

Abstract

EUV lithography at 13nm wavelengths will require the use of reflective multi-layer mask substrates with a patterned absorbing top layer. As the height of the absorber is many times the wavelength of the exposure radiation, EUV masks are true topographical entities. Therefore, scalar Frauenhofer diffraction simulations are not completely valid and accurate. Rigorous solution of Maxwell's equations in the topography is necessary to accurately predict many of the lithographic effects of these masks. Additionally, the interactions of the non-vertical radiation reflectance from the multilayer stack with the absorber causes further non-intuitive lithographic results which need to be understood and optimized. To further the rigorous understanding of EUV mask effects, we have extended existing 2D and 3D rigorous simulators to model EUV lithography diffraction. These simulators, METRO and METROPOLE-3D respectively, use the waveguide method for fast and accurate computation of topographical mask structures. Modifications of these simulators enable an order of magnitude speedup in the calculation of results containing large numbers of EUV multilayers, improve mask dimension modeling accuracy and enable accurate modeling of the non-normal EUV source illumination through a range of pitch values. Rigorous illumination and multilayer defect analysis results will also be shown. Additional comparisons to recently published rigorous EUV simulations results and impressive runtime results on standard desktop workstations are presented. The results show that for EUV lithography the best focus position and the symmetry of the aerial image intensity profile with respect to best focus is affected by the pattern pitch.

Citation Download Citation

Zhengrong Zhu, Zhengrong Zhu, Kevin Lucas, Kevin Lucas, Jonathan L. Cobb, Jonathan L. Cobb, Scott Daniel Hector, Scott Daniel Hector, Andrzej J. Strojwas, Andrzej J. Strojwas, } "Rigorous EUV mask simulator using 2D and 3D waveguide methods", Proc. SPIE 5037, Emerging Lithographic Technologies VII, (16 June 2003); doi: 10.1117/12.484963; https://doi.org/10.1117/12.484963

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