CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Advanced Search
Home > Journals > J. Micro/Nanopattern. Mats. Metro. > Volume 22 > Issue 2 > Article
10 December 2022 Role of landing energy in e-beam metrology of thin photoresist for high-numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography
Mohamed Zidan, Daniel Fischer, Joren Severi, Danilo De Simone, Alain Moussa, Angelika Müllender, Chris A. Mack, Anne-Laure Charley, Philippe Leray, Stefan De Gendt, Gian Francesco Lorusso
Author Affiliations +
Journal of Micro/Nanopatterning, Materials, and Metrology, Vol. 22, Issue 2, 021002 (December 2022). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMM.22.2.021002
Abstract

Background

Lithography advancements require to resist layer thickness reduction, essential to cope with the low depth of focus (DOF) characteristic of high numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography (HNA EUVL). However, such a requirement poses serious challenges in terms of resist process metrology and characterization, as patterns in thin resist suffer from low contrast, which may affect the performance of the edge detection algorithms used for image analysis, ultimately impacting metrology.

Aim

Investigate e-beam imaging using low landing energy (LE) settings as a possible way to address the thin resist film metrology issues.

Approach

A low-voltage aberration-corrected SEM developed at Carl Zeiss is to image three thin resist thicknesses and two different underlayers, at various LE and number of frames. All images are analyzed using MetroLER software, to extract the parameters of interest [mean critical dimension (CD), line width roughness (LWR), and linescan signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)] in a consistent way.

Results

The results indicate that mean CD and LWR are affected by the measurement conditions, as expected. Imaging through LE unravels two opposing regimes in the mean CD estimate, the first in which the mean CD increases due to charging and the second in which the mean CD decreases due to shrinkage. Additionally, the trend between LE and linescan SNR varies depending on the stack.

Conclusion

We demonstrated the ability of low-voltage aberration-corrected SEM to perform thin-resist metrology with good flexibility and acceptable performance. The LE proved to be an important knob for metrology of thin resist.
© 2022 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
Citation Download Citation
Mohamed Zidan, Daniel Fischer, Joren Severi, Danilo De Simone, Alain Moussa, Angelika Müllender, Chris A. Mack, Anne-Laure Charley, Philippe Leray, Stefan De Gendt, and Gian Francesco Lorusso "Role of landing energy in e-beam metrology of thin photoresist for high-numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography," Journal of Micro/Nanopatterning, Materials, and Metrology 22(2), 021002 (10 December 2022). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMM.22.2.021002
Received: 15 September 2022; Accepted: 28 November 2022; Published: 10 December 2022
ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE
ORGANIZATIONAL
Sign in with credentials provided by your organization.
INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION
PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.
PERSONAL SIGN IN
No SPIE Account? Create one
PURCHASE THIS CONTENT
SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY
50 downloads per 1-year subscription
Members: $195
Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART
25 downloads per 1 - year subscription
Members: $145
Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART
PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE
Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available
Members: $24.00
Non-members: $28.00 ADD TO CART
JOURNAL ARTICLE
 12 PAGES
DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY
GET CITATION
Advertisement
Advertisement
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission  Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace
KEYWORDS
Signal to noise ratio
Metrology
Scanning electron microscopy
Line scan image sensors
Shrinkage
Semiconducting wafers
Critical dimension metrology
RELATED CONTENT
Subscribe to Digital Library
Receive Erratum Email Alert
Back to Top