Dr. Michael J. Lercel Profile

Dr. Michael J. Lercel

Director Strategic Marketing at

SPIE Involvement:

Conference Program Committee | Conference Chair | Conference Co-Chair | Author

Publications (40)

PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | October 25, 2016

Analyzing EUV mask costs

Proc. SPIE. 9985, Photomask Technology 2016

KEYWORDS: Optical lithography, Statistical analysis, Manufacturing, Inspection, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Yield improvement, Statistical modeling, Factor analysis

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | October 2, 2014

Assessing the viability of multi-electron beam wafer inspection for sub-20nm defects

Proc. SPIE. 9236, Scanning Microscopies 2014

KEYWORDS: Signal to noise ratio, Scattering, Light scattering, Inspection, Interference (communication), Scanning electron microscopy, Semiconducting wafers, Signal detection, Contrast transfer function, Defect inspection

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SPIE Journal Paper | June 29, 2012

Development of stable extreme-ultraviolet sources for use in lithography exposure systems

Igor Fomenkov, Bruno La Fontaine, Daniel Brown, Imtiaz Ahmad, Peter Baumgart, Norbert Bowering, David Brandt, Alexander Bykanov, Silvia De Dea, Alex Ershov, Nigel Farrar, Daniel Golich, Michael Lercel, David Myers, Chirag Rajyaguru, Shailendra Srivastava, Yezheng Tao, Georgiy Vaschenko

JM3 Vol. 11 Issue 02

KEYWORDS: Extreme ultraviolet, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Plasma, Lithography, Tin, Reflectivity, Semiconducting wafers, Mirrors, Scanners, Gas lasers

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | March 23, 2012

Laser produced plasma EUV sources for device development and HVM

Proc. SPIE. 8322, Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Lithography III

KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Scanners, Coating, Manufacturing, Laser scanners, Extreme ultraviolet, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Semiconducting wafers, Plasma, Tin

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | March 23, 2012

Light sources for EUV lithography at the 22-nm node and beyond

Proc. SPIE. 8322, Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Lithography III

KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Light sources, Ions, Reflectivity, Carbon dioxide lasers, Control systems, Extreme ultraviolet, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Plasma, Tin

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | April 7, 2011

LPP source system development for HVM

Proc. SPIE. 7969, Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Lithography II

KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Scanners, Reflectivity, Carbon dioxide lasers, Laser scanners, Extreme ultraviolet, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, 3D scanning, Semiconducting wafers, Plasma

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | May 19, 2008

Predicting lithography costs: guidance for ≤ 32 nm patterning solutions

Proc. SPIE. 7028, Photomask and Next-Generation Lithography Mask Technology XV

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Reticles, Optical lithography, Etching, Manufacturing, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Double patterning technology, Semiconducting wafers

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | March 23, 2007

SEMATECH’s EUV program: a key enabler for EUVL introduction

Proc. SPIE. 6517, Emerging Lithographic Technologies XI

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Reticles, Metrology, Particles, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Optics manufacturing, EUV optics, Defect inspection

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SPIE Conference Volume | March 13, 2007

Emerging Lithographic Technologies XI

PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | October 20, 2006

Reparing the mask industry

Proc. SPIE. 6349, Photomask Technology 2006

KEYWORDS: Semiconductors, Lithography, Metrology, Manufacturing, Photomasks, Integrated circuits, Semiconducting wafers, Yield improvement, Phase shifts, Defect inspection

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | June 21, 2006

Mask industry assessment trend analysis

Proc. SPIE. 6281, 22nd European Mask and Lithography Conference

KEYWORDS: Semiconductors, Manufacturing, Pellicles, Printing, Data processing, Microelectronics, Photomasks, Optical proximity correction, Data conversion, Binary data

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | June 21, 2006

The magic of 4X mask reduction

Proc. SPIE. 6281, 22nd European Mask and Lithography Conference

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Reticles, Optical lithography, Polarization, Scanners, Manufacturing, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Semiconducting wafers, Optics manufacturing

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | March 24, 2006

The EUV resist test center at Sematech-North

Proc. SPIE. 6151, Emerging Lithographic Technologies X

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Reticles, Contamination, Photoresist materials, Extreme ultraviolet, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Line edge roughness, Semiconducting wafers, Real-time computing, Photoresist developing

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SPIE Conference Volume | March 10, 2006

Emerging Lithographic Technologies X

SPIE Conference Volume | May 6, 2005

Emerging Lithographic Technologies IX

PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | May 4, 2005

Silsesquioxane-based 193 nm bilayer resists: characterization and lithographic evaluation

Proc. SPIE. 5753, Advances in Resist Technology and Processing XXII

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Monochromatic aberrations, FT-IR spectroscopy, Etching, Quartz, Polymers, Spectroscopy, Crystals, Silicon, Resistance

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Polysilsesquioxane-based 193 nm positive bilayer resists are described. In this design Si for etch resistance is placed in every repeat unit and acid-labile protected and acidic groups (and polar units) are in the side chain, allowing to incorporate each lithographically critical functionality in sufficient quantity. Fluoroalcohol is employed as an acid group instead of carboxylic acid because of its more attractive dissolution properties. Polymers were carefully analyzed by 19F, 13C, and 29Si NMR to determine composition and to quantify residual acetyl, silanol, and Q/T. Hydrogen-bonding between tertiary ester and fluoroalcohol in the polysilsesquioxanes was investigated by FT-IR and the effect of lactone incorporation on the thermal deprotection temperature elucidated. In order to better understand the dissolution behavior of exposed resist films, the silsesquioxane resist polymers were partially (ca. 30%) and fully deprotected in solution with acid and their dissolution kinetics investigated by using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). It has been found that the exposed areas of the silsesquioxane resists can have a very fast dissolution rate (Rmax) of >20,000 A/sec (or even >100,000 A/sec). Heating the fully deprotected model polymers to 150°C did not reduce the dissolution rate much, suggesting thermal condensation of silanol end groups is insignificant. Model deprotected polymers containing triphenylsulfonium nonaflate were exposed to 254 nm radiation, baked, and subjected to QCM measurements in order to determine whether or not acid-catalyzed silanol condensation would reduce the dissolution rate. A combination of high dose and high temperature bake resulted in significant reduction of the dissolution rate in the silsesquioxane polymer containing a small trifluoroalcohol. However, the dissolution behavior of the polymer bearing a bulky norbornene hexafluoroalcohol was unaffected by exposure and bake. Chemical and development contrast curves were generated by using a temperature gradient plate and bake temperature effects investigated. While a postapply bake temperature variation from 95 to 130°C did not affect the contrast (chemical and development) and sensitivity, a postexposure bake temperature effect was quite small. The process window of the silsesquioxane bilayer resists was comparable to that of a high performance commercial 193 nm single layer resist for both isolated and nested contact hole imaging, Superior performance of our silsesquioxane resist was demonstrated in patterned etch in comparison with a COMA-based bilayer resist.

PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | May 28, 2004

Full field imaging with a 157-nm scanner

Proc. SPIE. 5377, Optical Microlithography XVII

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Reticles, Optical lithography, Scanners, Scanning electron microscopy, Photomasks, Critical dimension metrology, Semiconducting wafers, Binary data, Phase shifts

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | May 28, 2004

Effect of reduction ratio on polarization impact for imaging

Proc. SPIE. 5377, Optical Microlithography XVII

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Diffraction, Reticles, Polarization, Opacity, Chromium, Photomasks, SRAF, Semiconducting wafers, Resolution enhancement technologies

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Much has been made of the term 'subwavelength' in the lithography community in recent years, referring to the smaller feature sizes that the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) demands. This term, however, has additional meaning when the features on the reticle, rather than on the wafer, are smaller than the wavelength. In this case, all assumptions that are made concerning the (lack of) diffraction in the immediate vicinity of the reticle in conventional simulation algorithms - including that in model-based optical proximity correction (MBOPC) software - become invalid. As has been repeatedly shown, one must resort to a vector representation of the illumination and solve Maxwell's equations in order to properly characterize the electric field beyond the reticle. For the 90 and 65 nm nodes, resolution enhancement features such as subresolution assist features (SRAFs) and alternating phase-shift masks (Alt-PSM) require such analysis for accurate modeling. Furthermore, if the industry continues a push to use 193 nm lithography for the 45 nm node, and if the current 4X reduction infrastructure also remains, then all critical features will require this full vectorial solution to maintain acceptable accuracy in simulations. Furthermore, the simultaneous push to increasingly higher values of the numerical aperture - beyond 0.85 - requires that the polarization of the light in the exit pupil of the projection lens be considered. Although the ability to simulate this phenomenon has existed in standard simulation software, there remain issues that are not well understood by the community. These questions go beyond the difficulty of such simulations: it is never a question that someone will write software to model these scenarios. The real problem lies in runtime: many of these problems require an increase in runtime of an order of magnitude, or more, in a production model-based OPC environment, which translates into increased cycle time and cost per chip. This is in addition to the expected loss in process latitude caused by unintentional polarization phenomena. One may be tempted to assume that these problems will go away by relaxing the reduction ratio beyond 4X to, say, 8X; that is, by increasing the critical dimension (CD) on the mask. While this is indeed likely, more practical problems inevitably creep in, the most serious of these being throughput loss. The economic issues, and not technical ones, has kept the reduction ratio fixed in the face of the lithographic difficulties we as an industry face going forward. Nevertheless, as we hurriedly investigate technologies that seemed exploratory not long ago, the technical aspects of increasing the reduction ratio beyond 4X are worth another look. Clearly, EMF effects will decrease, but not vanish; how much of an impact this has on our ability to simulate quickly and obtain reasonable process windows in the EMF regime for 4X is a goal of this paper.

SPIE Conference Volume | May 20, 2004

Emerging Lithographic Technologies VIII

PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | June 16, 2003

Reduction of image placement errors in EPL masks

Proc. SPIE. 5037, Emerging Lithographic Technologies VII

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Electron beam lithography, Reticles, Metrology, Silicon, Photomasks, Mask making, Optical alignment, Semiconducting wafers, Projection lithography

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SPIE Journal Paper | April 1, 2003

Predicting overlay performance for electron projection lithography masks

Phillip Reu, Cheng-Fu Chen, Roxann Engelstad, Edward Lovell, Michael Lercel, Obert Wood, R. Mackay

JM3 Vol. 2 Issue 02

KEYWORDS: Photomasks, Mask making, Manufacturing, Electron beam lithography, Performance modeling, Projection lithography, Finite element methods, 3D modeling, Device simulation, Semiconducting wafers

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | August 16, 2002

Mask availability for next-generation lithography

Proc. SPIE. 4764, 18th European Conference on Mask Technology for Integrated Circuits and Microcomponents

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Multilayers, Etching, Image processing, X-rays, Inspection, Reflectivity, Chromium, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet lithography

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | August 1, 2002

EPL mask fabrication

Proc. SPIE. 4754, Photomask and Next-Generation Lithography Mask Technology IX

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Electron beam lithography, Optical lithography, Metals, Image processing, Photomasks, Mask making, Line edge roughness, Data centers, Semiconducting wafers

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | August 1, 2002

EUVL mask fabrication for the 45-nm node

Proc. SPIE. 4754, Photomask and Next-Generation Lithography Mask Technology IX

KEYWORDS: Oxides, Silica, Particles, Silicon, Inspection, Reflectivity, Chromium, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet, Extreme ultraviolet lithography

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | July 1, 2002

Analysis of critical parameters for EPL mask fabrication

Proc. SPIE. 4688, Emerging Lithographic Technologies VI

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Metrology, Etching, Silicon, Distortion, Scanning electron microscopy, Image transmission, Photomasks, Mask making, Reactive ion etching

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | July 1, 2002

Predicting overlay performance for electron projection lithography masks

Proc. SPIE. 4688, Emerging Lithographic Technologies VI

KEYWORDS: Electron beam lithography, Etching, Silicon, Manufacturing, Control systems, Finite element methods, Photomasks, Mask making, Semiconducting wafers, Projection lithography

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | July 1, 2002

Status of fabrication of square-format masks for extreme-ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) at the MCoC

Proc. SPIE. 4688, Emerging Lithographic Technologies VI

KEYWORDS: Metrology, Etching, Quartz, Silicon, Inspection, Reflectivity, Chromium, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Line edge roughness

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | March 11, 2002

Inspection and repair of EUV

Proc. SPIE. 4562, 21st Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology

KEYWORDS: Multilayers, Etching, Silicon, Inspection, Reflectivity, Chromium, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Semiconducting wafers

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | March 11, 2002

Characterization and etching of sputter-deposited absorber films for extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) masks

Proc. SPIE. 4562, 21st Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology

KEYWORDS: Oxides, Etching, Argon, Silicon, Chromium, Silicon films, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Tantalum, Semiconducting wafers

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | March 11, 2002

Utilization of optical emission endpoint in photomask dry etch processing

Proc. SPIE. 4562, 21st Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology

KEYWORDS: Reticles, Etching, Quartz, Dry etching, Chromium, Photomasks, Plasma etching, Critical dimension metrology, Chlorine, Plasma

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | August 20, 2001

Evaluation and comparison of the pattern-transfer-induced image placement distortions on e-beam projection lithography masks

Proc. SPIE. 4343, Emerging Lithographic Technologies V

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Electron beam lithography, Scattering, Etching, Image processing, Silicon, Image analysis, Finite element methods, Photomasks, Projection lithography

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | January 22, 2001

Evaluation of an advanced chemically amplified resist for next-generation lithography mask fabrication

Proc. SPIE. 4186, 20th Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Image processing, X-rays, Silicon, Photomasks, Mask making, Silicon carbide, Critical dimension metrology, Photoresist processing, Temperature metrology

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | January 22, 2001

UV inspection of EUV and SCALPEL reticles

Proc. SPIE. 4186, 20th Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology

KEYWORDS: Reticles, Ultraviolet radiation, Silicon, Inspection, Reflectivity, Chromium, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet, Semiconducting wafers, Charged-particle lithography

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | July 21, 2000

Chemically amplified resists for electron-beam projection lithography mask fabrication

Proc. SPIE. 3997, Emerging Lithographic Technologies IV

KEYWORDS: Scattering, Etching, X-rays, Silicon, Coating, Photomasks, Mask making, Silicon carbide, Critical dimension metrology, Photoresist processing

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | July 21, 2000

Image size control in next generation lithography masks

Proc. SPIE. 3997, Emerging Lithographic Technologies IV

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Etching, X-rays, Silicon, Resistance, Photomasks, Critical dimension metrology, Semiconducting wafers, Thermal modeling, Charged-particle lithography

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | July 19, 2000

Next-generation lithography mask development at the NGL-MCOC

Proc. SPIE. 4066, Photomask and Next-Generation Lithography Mask Technology VII

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Diamond, Scattering, Etching, Image processing, X-rays, Silicon, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Photoresist processing

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | December 30, 1999

Next-generation lithography mask development at the NGL Mask Center of Competency

Proc. SPIE. 3873, 19th Annual Symposium on Photomask Technology

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Electron beam lithography, Etching, X-rays, Silicon, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet, Critical dimension metrology, Semiconducting wafers, X-ray lithography

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | June 25, 1999

Advanced refractory-metal and process technology for the fabrication of x-ray masks

Proc. SPIE. 3676, Emerging Lithographic Technologies III

KEYWORDS: Diamond, Etching, Argon, X-rays, Silicon, Chromium, Photomasks, Silicon carbide, X-ray imaging, X-ray technology

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | June 25, 1999

UVN2-negative chemically amplified resist optimization for x-ray mask fabrication

Proc. SPIE. 3676, Emerging Lithographic Technologies III

KEYWORDS: Lithography, Diffractive optical elements, Etching, Image processing, X-rays, Manufacturing, Photomasks, Photoresist processing, Semiconducting wafers, Chemically amplified resists

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PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | June 25, 1999

Imaging capabilities of proximity x-ray lithography at 70-nm ground rules

Proc. SPIE. 3676, Emerging Lithographic Technologies III

KEYWORDS: Gold, Lithography, X-rays, Diffusion, Photoresist materials, Image quality, Photomasks, X-ray imaging, Semiconducting wafers, X-ray lithography

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