As lithography pushes to smaller and smaller features under the guidance of Moore's Law, patterned features smaller than the wavelength of light must be routinely manufactured. Lithographic yield in this domain is directly improved with the application of OPC (Optical and Process Correction) to the pattern data. Such corrections generally assume that the mask can reproduce these features exactly. The Mask Error Enhancement Factor (MEEF) serves to amplify mask errors, and can reduce the benefits of OPC in some circumstances. In this paper, we present the characterization of the MEEF for 65nm technology attenuated phase shift mask to figure out how to better set mask specs from an OPC perspective and how to measure the masks relative to these specs and try to figure out new ways to reduce model sensitivity to mask deviations for metal level.

Date Published: 7 November 2005
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 5992, 25th Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology, 59922Q (7 November 2005); doi: 10.1117/12.630758

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5992:
25th Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology
J. Tracy Weed; Patrick M. Martin, Editor(s)