Inspection of imprint lithography patterns for semiconductor and patterned media

Douglas J. Resnick; Gaddi Haase; Lovejeet Singh; David Curran; Gerard M. Schmid; Kang Luo; Cindy Brooks; Kosta Selinidis; John Fretwell; S. V. Sreenivasan

doi:10.1117/12.848391

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1 April 2010 Inspection of imprint lithography patterns for semiconductor and patterned media

Douglas J. Resnick, Gaddi Haase, Lovejeet Singh, David Curran, Gerard M. Schmid, Kang Luo, Cindy Brooks, Kosta Selinidis, John Fretwell, S. V. Sreenivasan

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Proceedings Volume 7637, Alternative Lithographic Technologies II; 76370R (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.848391
Event: SPIE Advanced Lithography, 2010, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

Imprint lithography has been shown to be an effective technique for replication of nano-scale features. Acceptance of imprint lithography for manufacturing will require demonstration that it can attain defect levels commensurate with the requirements of cost-effective device production. This work summarizes the results of defect inspections of semiconductor masks, wafers and hard disks patterned using Jet and Flash Imprint Lithography (J-FILTM). Inspections were performed with optical and e-beam based automated inspection tools. For the semiconductor market, a test mask was designed which included dense features (with half pitches ranging between 32 nm and 48 nm) containing an extensive array of programmed defects. For this work, both e-beam inspection and optical inspection were used to detect both random defects and the programmed defects. Analytical SEMs were then used to review the defects detected by the inspection. Defect trends over the course of many wafers were observed with another test mask using a KLA-T 2132 optical inspection tool. The primary source of defects over 2000 imprints were particle related. For the hard drive market, it is important to understand the defectivity of both the template and the imprinted disk. This work presents a methodology for automated pattern inspection and defect classification for imprint-patterned media. Candela CS20 and 6120 tools from KLA-Tencor map the optical properties of the disk surface, producing highresolution grayscale images of surface reflectivity, scattered light, phase shift, etc. Defects that have been identified in this manner are further characterized according to the morphology

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Douglas J. Resnick, Gaddi Haase, Lovejeet Singh, David Curran, Gerard M. Schmid, Kang Luo, Cindy Brooks, Kosta Selinidis, John Fretwell, and S. V. Sreenivasan "Inspection of imprint lithography patterns for semiconductor and patterned media", Proc. SPIE 7637, Alternative Lithographic Technologies II, 76370R (1 April 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.848391

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