Methods and systems to compensate for a stitching disturbance of a printed pattern in a maskless lithography system not utilizing overlap of the exposure zones

• US 7,688,423 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2008
• Issued: 03/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ASML Holding NV
• Original Assignee: ASML Holding NV
• Inventors: Bleeker, Arno, Latypov, Azat M., Cebuhar, Wenceslao A.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HUNG
• Application Number:
  US12/178,522
• Publication Number:
  US 20090033893A1
• Time in Patent Office: 615 Days
• Field of Search: 355/52, 355/53, 355/55, 355 67- 71, 250/548, 359/491, 359/492, 430/5, 430/22, 430/30, 430/311
• US Class Current: 355/53
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70291 Addressable masks, e.g. spatial light modulators [SLMs], digital micro-mirror devices [DMDs] or liquid crystal display [LCD] patterning devices
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70475 Stitching, i.e. connecting image fields to produce a device field, the field occupied by a device such as a memory chip, processor chip, CCD, flat panel display

Abstract

A method and system are provided for forming a pattern within an area of a photosensitive surface. An exemplary method includes performing a first exposure of the photosensitive surface in accordance with predetermined image data, wherein the first exposure occurs during a first pass and produces a first image within the area. The image data is adjusted to compensate for identified image deficiencies image deficiencies, the image deficiencies being within a region of the first image. A second exposure, of the photosensitive surface, is performed in accordance with the adjusted image data during a second pass.

Claims

1. An apparatus configured for forming a pattern within an area of a photosensitive surface, comprising:

means for performing a first exposure of the photosensitive surface in accordance with predetermined image data, wherein the first exposure produces a first image within the area;

means for identifying an image deficiency within a region of the first image;

means for adjusting the image data to compensate for the image deficiency; and

means for performing a second exposure of the photosensitive surface in accordance with the adjusted image data, the second exposure producing an assist feature configured to compensate for the image deficiency.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image data includes pixel modulation information.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first image is formed in an image plane.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the means for identifying performs identification apriorily based on modeling and simulation.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the means for identifying performs identification in real-time based on image deficiency predictions.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the deficiencies include stitching errors.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the region is a stitching seam separating exposure zones.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the identified deficiencies include seam necking.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second exposure produces a corrected image within an area devoid of the image deficiency.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the means for performing the second exposure comprises:

means for forming a second image within an object plane including seam thickening; and

means for printing the second image within the area to produce the corrected image in an image plane.

11. A method comprising:

performing a first exposure of a surface based on image data, the first exposure producing a first image within an area of the surface;

identifying an image deficiency within a region of the first image;

adjusting the image data to compensate for the image deficiency; and

performing a second exposure of the surface based on the adjusted image data, the second exposure producing an assist feature to compensate for the image deficiency.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the performing the first exposure comprises forming the first image in an image plane.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the identifying comprises identifying the image deficiency based on modeling and simulation.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the identifying comprises identifying the image deficiency in real-time based on image deficiency predictions.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the performing the second exposure comprises producing a corrected image with an area devoid of the image deficiency.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the performing the second exposure comprises:

producing a second image within an object plane, the second image including seam thickening; and

exposing the second image within the area to produce the corrected image in an image plane.