Hybrid approach for the design of mirror array to produce freeform illumination sources in immersion lithography

Abstract

Source and mask optimization (SMO) has emerged as a key resolution enhancement technique (RET) for 45nm technology node and below in lithography. The design method of freeform illumination sources predicted by SMO is significant for the scanner development. We present a hybrid approach combining simultaneous and sequential approaches to optimize the tilt angles of the mirrors to produce multi target freeform illumination sources accurately and quickly. The size of spot reflect by plane mirror can be easily controlled by changing different microlens arrays with appropriate focal length, which reduce the complexity of the system and makes it more flexible to produce the specific freeform sources compared to curving the mirrors used in previous work. The relationship between the tilt angles of plane mirrors and the positions of the spots in the pupil is obtained by chief ray tracing. Using the hybrid approach the freeform illumination sources required by SMO can be designed by merely adjusting the tilt angles of mirrors without changing other parameters of optical elements, which is most effective for both lithography tool manufacture and its applications. The real ray tracing results demonstrate that our design method is capable of creating multi freeform illumination sources with high transmittance, and confirm that the effectiveness of the hybrid approach for optimized design and control of mirror array in immersion lithography system.