With the full-scale adoption of EUV exposure tools, the use of Metrology and Inspection systems adapted for EUV process evaluation is increasing. In particular, with the increased durability of Pellicle, the importance of actinic Metrology and Inspection systems is increasing, and EUV light sources with high brightness and high availability are required. Gigaphoton Inc. has been developing laser-produced plasma (LPP) EUV light sources using Sn droplet technology for exposure tool since 2000. Based on this accumulated LPP EUV source technology, we have developed a High-brightness and compact LPP EUV source for Metrology and Inspection systems. This newly developed light source is a SoCoMo (Source Collector Module) EUV light source with a built-in reflective mirror based on customer specifications. In addition, it features stable operation and a one-year maintenance-free structure, contributing to longterm stable operation of the inspection equipment. Currently this EUV light source has demonstrated a brightness of 120W/mm2sr at the plasma point at a repetition frequency of 20kHz without any decrease in reflectivity of the EUV collector mirror after 500 hours of operation.
Gigaphoton has developed LPP EUV light source which is the most promising solution as the 13.5nm high power light source for HVM EUVL. Unique and original technologies including; combination of pulsed CO2 laser and Sn droplets, dual wavelength pico second laser pulses for shooting and debris mitigation by magnetic field have been applied. We have demonstrated high average power CO2 laser more than 25kW at output power in cooperation with Mitsubishi Electric. Pilot#1 demonstrated HVM capability; <300W operation data (short-term) and actual collector mirror reflectivity degradation rate is less than 0.15%/Gp by using real collector mirror around 125W (at I/F clean) in burst power < 10 Billion pulses operation. Long-term operation over 270W is also successful. Also we are developing small LPP light source for new application. I will report this new LPP light source at the conference.
The lifetime of optics, especially windows, has grown to reach 100 Bpls, and its evaluation lasts for several years at least. In elementary testing (short term), focusing on each damage phenomenon must be established. The degradation of calcium fluoride windows used as laser chamber windows in ArF excimer lasers (193-nm wavelength, 30-ns pulse width, 10-mJ output energy, ~80-mJ/cm2, 6-kHz and several dozen billion pulses) is analyzed. The results of analysis such as TEM-EDX, Nomarski-type differential interference contrast (DIC) microscope, AFM, etc. is shown. The damage mechanism can be estimated from these results. Comprehensive durability evaluation becomes more efficient by creating accelerated element tests (short term).
The shrinking of design rule requires the short wavelength light used in the optical inspection system. However, the
existence of the condition that the long wavelength light becomes effective for the defect detection in line/space structure
is known. Calculation results using numerical simulation showed that the probe light can penetrate to the line/space
structure depending on the polarization even though the light has long wavelength. A new model was introduced to make
theoretical explanation of this abnormal behavior of long wavelength light and the mechanism of optical penetration was
clarified. In this model, the averaged extinction coefficient was calculated in consideration of the wavelength and the
period of the line/space structure. Using this model, the transmittance was calculated and compared with simulations.
The fact that the calculation result is agreed with the simulations showed this model's utility. This result shows that the
probe light can reach to the bottom of line/space structure in the inspection system for semiconductor devices even
though the light has long wavelength. It means that the long wavelength light can be used effectively for the defect
detection of the micro periodic structure in the semiconductor inspection system.
Scatterometry is gaining acceptance as a technique for critical dimension (CD) metrology that complements the more established scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. Scatterometry determines the dimensions of the submicron structures by inverse diffraction calculations. SEM and scatterometry are complementary in many respects. Therefore, they are likely to coexist in the foreseeable future. Scatterometry and CD-SEM instruments can be integrated to take advantage of the complementary nature of the two techniques. To explore the joint use of scatterometry and SEM measurements, we measured a set of photoresist grating samples with CDs ranging from 240 nm through 40 nm by scatterometer (Sensys CD-i) and cross-section SEM (Hitachi S-4700). Although a cross-section SEM was used as an absolute standard for comparison of profiles and CDs, our conclusions range to include CD-SEM techniques. It was found that for measurements of profiles that were patterned with high uniformity within the measurement area, scatterometry was very effective, and correlated best with SEM measurements. However, in cases of substantial line-to-line profile variations, or for isolated or non-periodic lines, SEM is the more appropriate measurement method.
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