公开(公告)号：US11940737B2

公开(公告)日：2024-03-26

申请号：US17315087

申请日：2021-05-07

申请人： TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.

发明人： Hsueh-Yi Chung ,  Yung-Cheng Chen ,  Fei-Gwo Tsai ,  Chi-Hung Liao ,  Shih-Chi Fu ,  Wei-Ti Hsu ,  Jui-Ping Chuang ,  Tzong-Sheng Chang ,  Kuei-Shun Chen ,  Meng-Wei Chen

IPC分类号： G03F7/20 ,  G03F1/50 ,  G03F1/68 ,  G03F1/70 ,  G03F1/78 ,  G03F7/00 ,  H01L21/66

CPC分类号： G03F7/70433 ,  G03F1/50 ,  G03F1/68 ,  G03F1/70 ,  G03F1/78 ,  G03F7/20 ,  G03F7/70141 ,  G03F7/70158 ,  G03F7/70716 ,  H01L22/30

摘要： A method includes receiving a device design layout and a scribe line design layout surrounding the device design layout. The device design layout and the scribe line design layout are rotated in different directions. An optical proximity correction (OPC) process is performed on the rotated device design layout and the rotated scribe line design layout. A reticle includes the device design layout and the scribe line design layout is formed after performing the OPC process.

公开(公告)号：US20230266673A1

公开(公告)日：2023-08-24

申请号：US18309809

申请日：2023-04-30

申请人： Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH

发明人： Vitaliy SHKLOVER

IPC分类号： G03F7/20

CPC分类号： G03F7/70175 ,  G03F7/70158 ,  G03F7/702

摘要： A reflective optical element (17), in particular for reflecting EUV radiation (16), includes: a substrate (25), and a reflective coating (26) applied to the substrate (25). In one disclosed aspect, the substrate (25) is doped within its volume (V) with at least one precious metal (27). In a further disclosed aspect, the reflective coating (26) and/or a structured layer (28) that is formed between the substrate (25) and the reflective coating (26) is doped with at least one precious metal (27). Also disclosed are an optical arrangement, preferably a projection exposure apparatus for microlithography, in particular for EUV lithography, which includes at least one such reflective optical element (17), and a method of producing such a reflective optical element (17).

公开(公告)号：US20190219931A1

公开(公告)日：2019-07-18

申请号：US16246004

申请日：2019-01-11

申请人： ASML Netherlands B.V.

发明人： Olger Victor ZWIER

IPC分类号： G03F7/20 ,  G03F9/00

CPC分类号： G03F7/70633 ,  G03F7/70158 ,  G03F7/70625 ,  G03F7/7065 ,  G03F7/70683 ,  G03F9/7003 ,  G03F9/7049

摘要： Disclosed is a method of measuring a target, and a metrology apparatus. In one arrangement the target comprises a layered structure. The layered structure has a first target structure in a first layer and a second target structure in a second layer. The method comprises illuminating the target with measurement radiation using an illumination profile in the illumination pupil (u) that is offset from an imaginary line (IL) in the illumination pupil passing through the optical axis, to allow propagation to a detection region of the detection pupil of an allowed order (v2, v4) of a predetermined diffraction order while limiting propagation to the detection region of an equal and opposite order (v1′, v3′) of that predetermined diffraction order. Scattered radiation of plural double-diffracted allowed diffraction orders (w2, w4) is detected. A characteristic of the lithographic process is calculated using the detected scattered radiation of the predetermined diffraction orders.

公开(公告)号：US20180329305A1

公开(公告)日：2018-11-15

申请号：US16028953

申请日：2018-07-06

申请人： ASML Netherlands B.V.

发明人： Arie Jeffrey DEN BOEF ,  Kaustuve BHATTACHARYYA

IPC分类号： G03F7/20 ,  H01L23/544 ,  G03F9/00

CPC分类号： G03F7/705 ,  G03F7/70158 ,  G03F7/70633 ,  G03F7/70683 ,  G03F9/708 ,  H01L23/544

摘要： Metrology targets are formed by a lithographic process, each target comprising a bottom grating and a top grating. Overlay performance of the lithographic process can be measured by illuminating each target with radiation and observing asymmetry in diffracted radiation. Parameters of metrology recipe and target design are selected so as to maximize accuracy of measurement of overlay, rather than reproducibility. The method includes calculating at least one of a relative amplitude and a relative phase between (i) a first radiation component representing radiation diffracted by the top grating and (ii) a second radiation component representing radiation diffracted by the bottom grating after traveling through the top grating and intervening layers. The top grating design may be modified to bring the relative amplitude close to unity. The wavelength of illuminating radiation in the metrology recipe can be adjusted to bring the relative phase close to π/2 or 3π/2.

公开(公告)号：US20180314164A1

公开(公告)日：2018-11-01

申请号：US15523938

申请日：2015-11-10

申请人： ASML NETHERLANDS B.V.

发明人： Jeroen DEKKERS ,  Han-Kwang NIENHUYS ,  Michael Jozef Mathijs RENKENS ,  Johannes Antonius Gerardus AKKERMANS ,  Gosse Charles DE VRIES ,  Erik Roelof LOOPSTRA

IPC分类号： G03F7/20 ,  G02B5/18 ,  G02B26/00

CPC分类号： G03F7/70158 ,  G02B5/1828 ,  G02B5/1838 ,  G02B5/1861 ,  G02B6/29314 ,  G02B26/004 ,  G03F7/70266 ,  G03F7/70308

摘要： An adjustable diffraction grating includes: an optical element and a distortion mechanism. The optical element has an optical surface to receive an input radiation beam. The optical element is provided with a plurality of closed channels below the optical surface, above each closed channel the optical surface being formed from a membrane of material. The distortion mechanism includes one or more actuators that are operable to distort the membranes over the closed channels so as to control the shape of the optical surface and to form a periodic structure on the optical surface which acts as a diffraction grating such that the input radiation beam is diffracted from the optical element to form a plurality of angularly separated sub-beams.

公开(公告)号：US20180196350A1

公开(公告)日：2018-07-12

申请号：US15869606

申请日：2018-01-12

申请人： Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH

发明人： Stig BIELING ,  Helmut HAIDNER

IPC分类号： G03F7/20

CPC分类号： G03F7/706 ,  G03F7/70133 ,  G03F7/70158 ,  G03F7/702 ,  G03F7/70208 ,  G03F7/7085

摘要： A microlithographic projection exposure apparatus (10) includes a projection lens (26) that images an object field (22) arranged in a mask plane (24) onto a substrate (28) during exposure operation of the projection exposure apparatus, and an illumination system (16) that has: an exposure illumination beam path (44) for radiating illumination radiation (14) onto the object field on the illumination side with respect to the mask plane, a measurement illumination beam path (48) for irradiating a measurement structure (54) arranged in the mask plane with the illumination radiation, and a scattering structure (50) arranged on the illumination side with respect to the mask plane and outside the exposure illumination beam path. The measurement illumination beam path extends via the scattering structure and runs rectilinearly between the scattering structure and the mask plane.

公开(公告)号：US20180046087A1

公开(公告)日：2018-02-15

申请号：US15552951

申请日：2016-02-22

申请人： Wolfgang IFF ,  Universite Jean Monnet Saint Etienne ,  Centre National De la Recherche Scientifique

发明人： Wolfgang IFF ,  Alexandre TISHCHENKO

IPC分类号： G03F7/20 ,  G06F17/12

CPC分类号： G03F7/70158 ,  G03F7/70316 ,  G03F7/705 ,  G03F7/70958 ,  G06F17/12

摘要： The invention concerns a numerical calculation procedure of the diffraction of a structure (1) whose numerical model defines the dielectric permittivity at each point comprizing the steps of: definition of a numerical modellization of the diffraction model of a structure including: the splitting of the numerical model of the dielectric permittivity into N numerical models of dielectric permittivity; the determination of the diffraction model of the said layers from the numerical model of this layer; numerical calculation of the diffraction of the structure including: an initial iteration during which one performs: one wave propagation in the direction of layers 1 to N, and one wave propagation in the direction of the layers N to 1, ulterior iterations, each ulterior iteration of index k including: one wave propagation in the direction of layers 2 to N: one wave propagation in the direction of layers N−1 to 1.

公开(公告)号：US09885959B2

公开(公告)日：2018-02-06

申请号：US13890547

申请日：2013-05-09

申请人： NIKON CORPORATION

发明人： Takehito Kudo ,  Shigeru Hirukawa

IPC分类号： G03F7/20 ,  G03B27/42

CPC分类号： G03F7/70191 ,  G03B27/42 ,  G03F7/70091 ,  G03F7/701 ,  G03F7/70108 ,  G03F7/70158 ,  G03F7/70566

摘要： An illumination optical apparatus illuminates a pattern on a mask with illumination light. The illumination optical apparatus includes an optical integrator arranged in an optical path of the illumination light, a deflecting member arranged in the optical path on an incidence side of the optical integrator, which deflects the illumination light, a lens element arranged in the optical path between the deflecting member and the optical integrator, which distributes the illumination light in a region, on a pupil plane of the illumination optical apparatus, away from an optical axis of the illumination optical apparatus, and a polarization member arranged in the optical path between the lens element and the optical integrator, which changes a polarization state of the illumination light so that a polarization direction of the illumination light in the region is substantially coincident with a circumferential direction about the optical axis.

公开(公告)号：US09678437B2

公开(公告)日：2017-06-13

申请号：US13890142

申请日：2013-05-08

申请人： NIKON CORPORATION

发明人： Takehito Kudo ,  Shigeru Hirukawa

IPC分类号： G03F7/20 ,  G03B27/42

CPC分类号： G03F7/70191 ,  G03B27/42 ,  G03F7/70091 ,  G03F7/701 ,  G03F7/70108 ,  G03F7/70158 ,  G03F7/70566

摘要： An illumination optical apparatus illuminates a pattern on a mask with illumination light. The illumination optical apparatus includes an optical integrator, a polarization member arranged in an optical path of the illumination light on an incidence side of the optical integrator, which changes a polarization state of the illumination light, and a distribution changing member arranged in the optical path between the polarization member and the optical integrator, which can change a light amount distribution of the illumination light on a pupil plane of the illumination optical apparatus. The polarization member changes the polarization state of the illumination light so that a polarization direction of the illumination light, which is distributed away from an optical axis of the illumination optical apparatus on the pupil plane, is substantially coincident with a circumferential direction about the optical axis on the pupil plane.

公开(公告)号：US20170146913A1

公开(公告)日：2017-05-25

申请号：US15425554

申请日：2017-02-06

申请人： NIKON CORPORATION

发明人： Takehito KUDO ,  Shigeru HIRUKAWA

IPC分类号： G03F7/20

CPC分类号： G03F7/70191 ,  G03B27/42 ,  G03F7/70091 ,  G03F7/701 ,  G03F7/70108 ,  G03F7/70158 ,  G03F7/70566

摘要： An exposure method and apparatus for illuminating a pattern with an illumination system to expose a substrate through a projection system. The pattern is illuminated with illumination light with a light amount distribution in which an amount of light is larger in a pair of first areas and a pair of second areas than in an area other than the first and second areas on a pupil plane of the illumination system. The pair of the first areas being arranged outside an optical axis, the pair of the second areas being arranged on ten same straight line as the pair of the first areas are arranged on, and the pair of the second areas being arranged outside the pair of the first areas.