Development of An Integrated Proximity Effect Correction Scheme

9706944 Lee邻近效应是指由于电子束光刻中的电子散射和光学光刻中的光的衍射而导致的写入图案的模糊。随着为了增加电路密度而不断减小电路图案中的最小特征尺寸，邻近效应已经成为一个严重的问题。如果没有有效的邻近效应校正方法，可制造的电路图案的密度(容量)将受到显著限制。在未来，邻近效应校正有望成为电子束和光学光刻中纳米制造的关键步骤。以前提出的邻近效应校正方案，要么对实际电路不够通用，要么太耗时而不能用于大型电路图形。本研究项目的主要目标是开发一种综合的邻近效应校正方案，能够克服以往方案的缺点，以满足未来的需要。作为实现这一目标的第一步，早些时候提出了一种基于分层规则的方法，称为金字塔，用于电子束光刻中的邻近效应校正。它的第一个实现，金字塔1.0，为均匀衬底设计的已经完成。金字塔1.0已经通过计算机模拟和实验证明，能够在CD控制和校正速度方面成功地校正最小特征尺寸降至0.1(M)的高密度电路图形。在这个项目中，金字塔将扩展到非均匀和/或非平面衬底、光学邻近校正、掩模制造应用、用于更好地控制CD的混合(形状和剂量)修改、非矩形基元和超大规模图案。此外，还提出了金字塔软件的分布式实现，以利用如今随时可用的工作站网络的计算能力。***

9706944 Lee Proximity effect refers to blurring of the written pattern due to electron scattering in E-beam lithography and diffraction of light in optical lithography. As the minimum feature size in a circuit pattern is continuously reduced as an effort to increase circuit density, the proximity effect has become a serious problem. Without an efficient proximity effect correction method, the density (capacity) of a circuit pattern that can be fabricated will be significantly limited. In the future, proximity effect correction is expected to be an essential step for nano-fabrication in E-beam and optical lithography. Most of the previous schemes proposed for proximity effect correction are either not general enough for realistic circuits or too time-consuming to be used for large circuit patterns. The main objective of this research project is to develop an integrated proximity effect correction scheme which can overcome the drawbacks of the previous schemes in order to meet the future need. As the first step toward this goal, a hierarchical rule-based approach, named PYRAMID, to proximity effect correction in E-beam lithography was proposed earlier. Its first implementation, PYRAMID 1.0, designed for homogeneous substrates has been completed. PYRAMID 1.0 has been via computer simulation and experimentally demonstrated to be able to correct high-density circuit patterns with the minimum feature size down to 0.1 (m successfully in terms of CD control and correction speed. In this project, PYRAMID is to be extended for non-homogeneous and/or nonplanar substrates, optical proximity correction, mask-making application, hybrid (shape and dose) modification for better CD control, non-rectangular primitives, and ultra large scale patterns. Also, distributed implementation of PYRAMID software is proposed to utilize the computing power of a network of workstations which are readily available these days. ***