Tool to provide integrated circuit masks with accurate dimensional compensation of patterns

• US 10,437,950 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2017
• Issued: 10/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rosenbluth, Alan E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Brian
• Application Number:
  US15/420,246
• Publication Number:
  US 20170147734A1
• Time in Patent Office: 980 Days
• Field of Search: 716 51, 716 52, 716 53, 716 54, 716 55
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 1/36 Masks having proximity correction features; Preparation thereof, e.g. optical proximity correction [OPC] design processes
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70091 Illumination settings, i.e. intensity distribution in the pupil plane or angular distribution in the field plane; On-axis or off-axis settings, e.g. annular, dipole or quadrupole settings; Partial coherence control, i.e. sigma or numerical aperture [NA]
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70283 Mask effects on the imaging process
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/705 Modelling or simulating from physical phenomena up to complete wafer processes or whole workflow in wafer productions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/367 Design verification, e.g. using simulation, simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis [SPICE], direct methods or relaxation methods

Abstract

Disclosed are mask definition tools, apparatus, methods, systems and computer program products configured to process data representing a semiconductor fabrication mask. A non-limiting example of a method includes performing a decomposition process on a full Transmission Cross Coefficient (TCC) using coherent optimal coherent systems (OCS) kernels; isolating a residual TCC that remains after some number of coherent kernels are extracted from the full TCC; and performing at least one decomposition process on the residual TCC using at least one loxicoherent system. The loxicoherent system uses a plurality of distinct non-coherent kernel functions and is a compound system containing a paired coherent system and an incoherent system that act in sequence. An output of the coherent system is input as a self-luminous quantity to the incoherent system, and the output of the incoherent system is an output of the loxicoherent system.

Claims

1. A tool configured to process input data, comprising:

an input to receive input data representing integrated circuit shapes within separate mask regions of a semiconductor fabrication mask for use in optical lithography; and

an output to provide output data representing a mask in which dimensions of mask shapes are compensated on the basis of image content in the vicinity of each mask shape when the mask is projected during optical lithography by a partially coherent imaging system;

the tool being configured to match a partially coherent lithographic image by superposing images from a set of decomposition systems that include a DC-monolinear system, where the DC-monolinear system is configured to use a first aperture transmission and a different second aperture transmission for an output comprising a nonlinear function of an input mask spectrum.

2. The tool as in claim 1, wherein the tool is configured to form a residual Transmission Cross Coefficient (TCC) by subtracting an approximate TCC that is produced by at least one of the decomposition systems from the TCC of the partially coherent imaging system, and where the DC-monolinear system is configured to create a holographic interference pattern between mask images transmitted by a first constituent coherent system whose aperture transmission matches a critical axis of the residual TCC, and mask images transmitted by a second constituent coherent system.

3. The tool as in claim 2, where the tool is configured to assign transmission values to an aperture of the second constituent coherent system that minimize a total squared magnitude of a portion of the residual TCC that is left unmatched by the DC-monolinear system.