Abstract

Relying on reflective mask technology, extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is particularly vulnerable to mask substrate roughness. Previous research has shown mask roughness to play a significant role in printed line-edge roughness (LER). Here the analysis of mask-roughness effects is extended to printed contact-size variations. Unlike LER, illumination partial coherence is found to have little affect on the results for contacts that are near the diffraction limit. Analysis shows that, given the current state-of-the-art EUV mask, mask roughness has a significant effect on the process window for small contacts. The analysis also shows that a significant portion of the contact-size variation observed in recent 0.1-numerical-aperture EUV exposures can be attributed to the mask-roughness effect studied here.

© 2005 Optical Society of America

Relevance of mask-roughness-induced printed line-edge roughness in recent and future extreme-ultraviolet lithography tests

Patrick P. Naulleau
Appl. Opt. 43(20) 4025-4032 (2004)

Correlation method for the measure of mask-induced line-edge roughness in extreme ultraviolet lithography

Patrick P. Naulleau
Appl. Opt. 48(18) 3302-3307 (2009)

Extreme ultraviolet mask roughness effects in high numerical aperture lithography

Patrick Naulleau, Yow-Gwo Wang, and Tom Pistor
Appl. Opt. 57(7) 1724-1730 (2018)

Amplitude versus phase effects in extreme ultraviolet lithography mask scattering and imaging

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Appl. Opt. 56(12) 3325-3328 (2017)

Validity of the thin mask approximation in extreme ultraviolet mask roughness simulations

Patrick P. Naulleau and Simi A. George
Appl. Opt. 50(19) 3346-3350 (2011)