Realization of practical attenuated phase-shift mask with high-transmission KrF excimer laser exposure

A 17% transmittance embedded attenuated phase shift mask (ESPM) has been prepared and evaluated in terms of its optical printability of 180 nm to 150 nm hole features at KrF excimer laser light. A 6% transmission ESPM has also been evaluated for comparison. Contact hole features on test reticles were written by a laser writer with the laser proximity correction (LPC). The following effects of the LPC were found: 1) The mask CD is controlled within +/- 20 nm from the target for both dense and isolated features. 2) The CD was shifted over -20 nm for isolated eatures. 3) An improvement in CD linearity was observed where the CD error was kept within 10 to 70 nm even when the feature size and pitch were varied. A similarity in the results by Aerial Image Measurement Software (AIMS) and the optical simulator was found especially for isolated features, and this allows us to use the optical simulator instead of AIMS for evaluating the optical properties of EPSMs in some cases. By the Log-slopes of the optical intensity profiles of 180 nm contact hole features, we found that the high transmission EPSM has better Log-slope especially for isolated features. This means that the manufacturability of 180 nm contact holes will be achieved by using the high transmission EPSM. By similar evaluation we found that good manufacturability of 150 nm contact holes will be more difficult to achieve even by using the high transmission EPSM. The variation of CD-focus curves was analyzed for isolated contact hole features using AIMS data. The high transmission EPSM improves the exposure latitude for 180 MI features even with only 20 nm @4x resizing and also for 150 nm features but cannot improve the focus latitude. The Mask Error Factor (MEF) is evaluated by using the optical simulation. It is found to range in 1.1-1.5.