Impact of deformed extreme-ultraviolet pellicle in terms of CD uniformity

In-Seon Kim; Michael Yeung; Eytan Barouch; Hye-Keun Oh

doi:10.1117/12.2197752

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9 July 2015 Impact of deformed extreme-ultraviolet pellicle in terms of CD uniformity

In-Seon Kim, Michael Yeung, Eytan Barouch, Hye-Keun Oh

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Proceedings Volume 9658, Photomask Japan 2015: Photomask and Next-Generation Lithography Mask Technology XXII; 96580K (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2197752
Event: Photomask Japan 2015, 2015, Yokohama, Japan

Abstract

The usage of the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) pellicle is regarded as the solution for defect control since it can protect the mask from airborne debris. However some obstacles disrupt real-application of the pellicle such as structural weakness, thermal damage and so on. For these reasons, flawless fabrication of the pellicle is impossible. In this paper, we discuss the influence of deformed pellicle in terms of non-uniform intensity distribution and critical dimension (CD) uniformity. It was found that non-uniform intensity distribution is proportional to local tilt angle of pellicle and CD variation was linearly proportional to transmission difference. When we consider the 16 nm line and space pattern with dipole illumination (σc=0.8, σr=0.1, NA=0.33), the transmission difference (max-min) of 0.7 % causes 0.1 nm CD uniformity. Influence of gravity caused deflection to the aerial image is small enough to ignore. CD uniformity is less than 0.1 nm even for the current gap of 2 mm between mask and pellicle. However, heat caused EUV pellicle wrinkle might cause serious image distortion because a wrinkle of EUV pellicle causes a transmission loss variation as well as CD non-uniformity. In conclusion, local angle of a wrinkle, not a period or an amplitude of a wrinkle is a main factor to CD uniformity, and local angle of less than ~270 mrad is needed to achieve 0.1 nm CD uniformity with 16 nm L/S pattern.

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In-Seon Kim, Michael Yeung, Eytan Barouch, and Hye-Keun Oh "Impact of deformed extreme-ultraviolet pellicle in terms of CD uniformity", Proc. SPIE 9658, Photomask Japan 2015: Photomask and Next-Generation Lithography Mask Technology XXII, 96580K (9 July 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2197752

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