Reticle level compensation for long range effects

Abstract

Proximity Effects in electron beam lithography impact feature dimensions, pattern fidelity and uniformity. Electron scattering effects are commonly addressed using a mathematical model representing the radial exposure intensity distribution induced by a point electron source, commonly named Point Spread Function (PSF). PSF models are usually employed for correcting “short-range” and “long-range” backscattering effects up to 10μm to 15μm. It is well known that there are also some process related phenomena impacting pattern uniformity that have a wider range (fogging, chemical mechanical polishing -CMP- effects, etc.) which impacts up to a few millimeters or more. There are a number of commercial strategies for mitigating such long range effects based on data density. However, those traditional ones are usually performed within a single chip on a reticle field and ignore the presence of adjacent fields, neglecting their influence. Full field reticles can contain several different designs or arrayed chips in a multitude of layout placements. Reticle level jobdeck placing each design at specific sites, independent of each other can be used to account for the density of each pattern that has a relative impact on its neighbors, even if they are several millimeters away from offending data. Therefore, full field density analysis accounting for scribe frames and all neighboring patterns is required for reaching fidelity control requirements such as critical dimension (CD) and line end shortening (LES) on the full plate. This paper describes a technique to compensate long range effects going across chip boundaries to the full reticle exposure field. The extreme long range effects are also represented with a model that is calibrated according to the characteristics of the user‟s process. Data correction can be based on dose and geometry modulation. Uniform pattern dimensional control matching the user's specific process long range variability can be achieved with the techniques described in this paper.