Method and apparatus for the determination of laser correcting tool parameters

• US 9,753,366 B2
• Filed: 10/04/2011
• Issued: 09/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carl Zeiss SMS Ltd. (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung)
• Original Assignee: Carl Zeiss SMS Ltd. (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung)
• Inventors: Dmitriev, Vladimir
• Primary Examiner(s): Nghiem, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ngo, Peter
• Application Number:
  US13/252,480
• Publication Number:
  US 20120084044A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,163 Days
• Field of Search: 702127
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 10/00 Nanotechnology for information processing, storage or transmission, e.g. quantum computing or single electron logic
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 40/00 Manufacture or treatment of nanostructures
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 1/60 Substrates
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 1/72 Repair or correction of mask defects
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/0002 Lithographic processes using patterning methods other than those involving the exposure to radiation, e.g. by stamping
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/0014 Monitoring arrangements not otherwise provided for photometry G01J1/00, e.g. G01J1/4257; radiation pyrometry G01J5/00; measuring coherence of light G01J9/00; measuring wavelength of light G01J9/00, e.g. G01J9/0246; measuring optical pulses G01J11/00; calorimetrically measuring power of laser beams G01K17/003

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for determining at least one unknown laser beam parameter of a laser beam used for correcting errors of a transparent material including inducing a first persistent modification in the material by an interaction with the laser beam having a first set of laser beam parameters, measuring the induced first persistent modification of the material, calculating a second persistent modification in the material using a model describing persistent modifications in the material with a second set of laser beam parameters, wherein the first set of laser beam parameters comprises the second set of laser beam parameters and the at least one unknown laser beam parameter, setting up a target functional including the first persistent modification and the second persistent modification, and determining the at least one unknown laser beam parameter by minimizing the target functional.

Claims

1. A method for determining at least one unknown laser beam parameter of a laser beam used for correcting registration errors of a photolithographic mask, the method comprising:

a. inducing a first persistent modification in a substrate in the photolithographic mask by an interaction of the substrate of the photolithographic mask with the laser beam having a first set of laser beam parameters, wherein the first persistent modification introduces a local density variation in the substrate of the photolithographic mask;

b. measuring the first persistent modification induced in the substrate of the photolithographic mask;

c. calculating a second persistent modification in the substrate of the photolithographic mask using a deformation model describing persistent modifications that introduce local density variations in the substrate of the photolithographic mask with a second set of laser beam parameters, wherein the first set of laser beam parameters comprises the second set of laser beam parameters and the at least one unknown laser beam parameter;

d. setting up a target functional comprising the first persistent modification induced in the substrate of the photolithographic mask and the second persistent modification;

e. determining the at least one unknown laser beam parameter by minimizing the target functional; and

f. after determining the at least one unknown laser beam parameter, using the deformation model to control the laser beam to correct registration errors of one or more photolithographic masks.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a Lagrange variational principle is used to set-up the target functional.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the target functional minimizes a difference between the first persistent modification and the second persistent modification calculated by using the Lagrange variational principle.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first persistent modification is induced in a portion of the photolithographic mask and the induced first persistent modification is measured across an overall area of the photolithographic mask and wherein the second persistent modification is calculated across the overall area.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second set of laser beam parameters determines a writing density amplitude and a writing density which are model parameters.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one unknown laser beam parameter comprises components of a deformation element in the photolithographic mask in a normal direction perpendicular to the laser beam.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the writing density amplitude and the writing density are constant across the photolithographic mask during determining the at least one laser beam parameter.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first persistent modification comprises a density variation of the photolithographic mask, and/or wherein one set m of the second set of laser beam parameters results in a calculated displacement ζ

_i at the location i as a function of the components of the deformation element t_l^m in at least one normal direction l is given by

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the induced first persistent modification is a density variation measured as a difference of a displacement φ

_n of a location n relative to the location n prior to inducing the first persistent modification, and/or wherein the target functional is of the form

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the persistent modification comprises a density variation of the photolithographic mask and the induced variation of a refraction index in the photolithographic mask is used for determining of the at least one laser beam parameter, and/or wherein one set m of laser beam parameters results in a calculated retardation ρ

_n at the location n as a function of the components of the deformation element t_l^m in at least one normal direction l,

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the induced retardation variation is measured as a difference between the retardation θ

_n of a location n prior to inducing the first persistent modification and after inducing the first persistent modification with the first set of the laser beam parameters, and/or wherein the target functional is of the form

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the photolithographic mask comprises a substrate of at least one of a transmissive or a reflective photolithographic mask.