Critical Dimension Measurement of an Extreme-Ultraviolet Mask Utilizing Coherent Extreme-Ultraviolet Scatterometry Microscope at NewSUBARU

We have developed a coherent extreme ultraviolet scatterometry microscope (CSM) for actinic inspection and metrology of an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask. It was installed at the BL-3 beamline of the NewSUBARU synchrotron radiation facility. The CSM is a lens-less system with no objective, and aerial images and critical dimension (CD) values are estimated using the recorded diffraction image. A method of measuring CD values by reconstruction of aerial images using diffraction intensity has been developed. A repeatability of 0.3 nm (3 sigma) with a high precision is achieved with the actinic method. We also evaluate the CD uniformity of the 88 nm lines-and-spaces patterns on the finished EUV mask, which corresponds well with that obtained by critical-dimension scanning electron microscopy (CD-SEM) results. (C) 2011 The Japan Society of Applied Physics