Marc D. Himel

Design and fabrication of customized illumination patterns for low-k1 lithography: a diffractive approach

As CDs continue to shrink, lithographers are moving more towards using off-axis illumination schemes to increase their CD budget. There have been several papers over the last few years describing various custom illumination profiles designed for application specific optimization. These include various annular and quadrupole illumination schemes including weak quadrupole, CQUEST, and QuasarTM. Traditionally, pupil filtering is used to realize these complex illumination modes but this approach tends to introduce significant light loss. Therefore, compromises are made to lithographic performance to minimize the effect on wafer throughput. Diffractive optics, if incorporated into the design of the illumination system, can be used to create arbitrary illumination profiles without the associated light loss, thus maintaining throughput while optimizing system performance. We report on the design and fabrication of such devices for use with KrF, ArF, and potentially F2 scanners. Extension to I-line steppers is also possible.

An improved process for manufacturing diffractive optical elements (DOEs) for off-axis illumination systems

We present advancements in the manufacture of high-performance diffractive optical elements (DOEs) used in stepper/scanner off-axis illumination systems. These advancements have been made by employing high resolution lithographic techniques, in combination with precision glass-etching capabilities. Enhanced performance of DOE designs is demonstrated, including higher efficiency with improved uniformity for multi-pole illumination at the pupil plane, while maintaining low on-axis intensity. Theoretical predictions of the performance for several classes of DOE designs will be presented and compared with experimental results. This new process capability results in improved performance of current DOE designs, and enables greater customization including control of the output spatial intensity distribution for future designs. These advancements will facilitate continuous improvements in off-axis illumination optimization required by the end user to obtain larger effective lithographic process windows.

Advances in DOE modeling and optical performance for SMO applications

The introduction of source mask optimization (SMO) to the design process addresses an urgent need for the 32nm node and beyond as alternative lithography approaches continue to push out. To take full advantage of SMO routines, an understanding of the characteristic properties of diffractive optical elements (DOEs) is required. Greater flexibility in the DOE output is needed to optimize lithographic process windows. In addition, new and tighter constraints on the DOEs used for off-axis illumination (OAI) are being introduced to precisely predict, control and reduce the effects of pole imbalance and stray light on the CD budget. We present recent advancements in the modeling and optical performance of these DOEs.

Enabling process window improvement at 45nm and 32nm with free-form DOE illumination

We present a method for optimizing a free-form illuminator implemented using a diffractive optical element (DOE). The method, which co-optimizes the source and mask taking entire images of circuit clips into account, improves the common process-window and 2-D image fidelity. We compare process-windows for optimized standard and free-form DOE illuminations for arrays and random placements of contact holes at the 45 nm and 32 nm nodes. Source-mask cooptimization leads to a better-performing source compared to source-only optimization. We quantify the effect of typical DOE manufacturing defects on lithography performance in terms of NILS and common process-window.

Advanced testing requirements of diffractive optical elements for off-axis illumination in photolithography

The progress of immersion lithography toward the 22nm production node is putting more stringent requirements on the diffractive optics that are used for off-axis illumination. Tighter tolerances on pole balance, stray light, zeroth order, optical transmission, and matching of the far field output pattern to the design specification are in-turn requiring more accurate and repeatable optical testing. This paper will report on preliminary results from Tesseras new excimer diffractive optics test stand, including gauge capability and sources of variation, ending with a comparison of measurement capability to the required specifications.

Microfabrication of controlled angle diffusers used for resolution enhancement in microlithography

As CDs continue to shrink, lithographers are moving towards using off-axis illumination while continuing to decrease the operating wavelength to improve their CD budget. Currently DUV lithography at 248nm and 193nm are driving the ability of the foundries and IDM’s to meet or exceed the SIA roadmap for semiconductor chip performance. In time, however, the industry will migrate to the even shorter wavelengths of 157nm and 13nm. To meet today’s needs with 248nm and 193nm requires the use of Resolution Enhancement Techniques such as Optical Proximity Correction, Phase Shift Mask, and Off Axis Illumination. The need for these techniques will be only slightly reduced as the industry migrates to 157nm in several years. Off-axis illumination (the topic of this paper) has been shown to significantly increase the lithographic process window and there have been several papers over the last few years describing various illumination profiles designed for application specific optimization. These include various annular and quadrupole illumination schemes including weak quadrupole, CQUEST, and Quasar Diffractive optics, if incorporated into the design of the illumination system, can be used to create arbitrary illumination profiles without the associated light loss, thus maintaining throughput while optimizing system performance. We report on the design and fabrication of such devices for use with KrF, ArF, and F2 scanners.

Design and fabrication of customized illumination patterns for low-k1 lithography--a diffractive approach: II. Calcium fluoride controlled-angle diffusers

As CDs continue to shrink, lithographers are moving more towards using off-axis illumination schemes to increase their CD budget. There have been several papers over the last few years describing various custom illumination profiles designed for application specific optimization. These include various annular and quadrupole illumination schemes including weak quadrupole, CQUEST, and QuasarTM. Diffractive optics, if incorporated into the design of the illumination system, can be used to create arbitrary illumination profiles without the associated light loss, thus maintaining throughput while optimizing system performance. Diffractive optical elements used to generate efficient illumination profiles for 248 nm and 193 nm excimer laser-source scanners, have been reported and realized in fused silica. The fabrication of such elements in calcium fluoride (CaF2), for use in 157 nm wavelength lithographic projection tools has been developed and is presented in this paper. Three different categories of elements are shown: large-diagonal-cluster diffusers, medium- and small-rectangular-cluster diffusers. The diffusers were fabricated as binary phase devices, in order to determine calcium fluoride processing capabilities.

Tolerancing and analysis of a diffractive beam shaper

This paper describes the design and analysis of a deep-UV diffractive beam shaper for converting a collimated Gaussian beam into a collimated flattop beam. Diffractive beam shapers can be manufactured in most common materials to provide good beam control with very low non-uniformity. Beam shapers, however, are generally very sensitive to beam parameters and alignment. Here we examine the sensitivity of the beam shaper to alignment and tilt of the input beam, phase surfaces, and various other fabrication errors. This device was successfully built and comparisons with laboratory measurements show excellent agreement with simulation predictions.