Photomask Defect Inspection and Metrology for Semiconductor Lithography Technology

半导体光刻技术的光掩模缺陷检测和计量

• 批准号: 1855473
• 负责人: ChaBum Lee
• 金额: $ 29.88万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-07-01 至 2023-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1855473&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Photomask; Defect; Inspection; Metrology; Semiconductor

Semiconductors are the indispensable components of a wide range of products, such as smartphones and electrical appliances, and this award contributes to the creation of new knowledge in photomask inspection and metrology for the semiconductor industry. The availability of the interferometry inspection technology helps enhance the lithography manufacturing resolution, promote miniaturization and increase the performance and reduce the cost of electronic devices. In semiconductor manufacturing processes, photomasks with holes and transparencies that allow light to shine through in a defined pattern are an enabling technology for lithography. Photomask defects, such as unwanted patterns, contaminations and substrate flaws, become increasingly important sources of inaccuracies in the lithography processes and patterning. This award supports fundamental research to develop new measurement principles in photomask inspection, metrology, design and manufacturing. The project's inspection technique and simulation methods enable the determination of photomask quality. The method identifies photomask defects, creates defect models and compensates for lithography manufacturing errors. As a result, this research provides photomask manufacturers with significant time and cost savings by automating the photomask defect analysis process, which benefits the photomask, lithography machine tool and semiconductor manufacturing industries and, thus, the U.S. economy. This project provides interdisciplinary research experience for students, broadens participation of underrepresented groups in research through a precision metrology internship program, and influences engineering education through a course in Mechanical Measurements and Precision Machine Tools. As the photomask industry progresses towards smaller and smaller technology nodes, the need for more aggressive inspection becomes critical. Photomask inspection involves checking the correctness of the fabricated photomasks used for semiconductor device fabrication. The projected images of the defective photomask appear as irregularities, such as, line widths that are narrower or wider than designed, line-edge roughness of the patterns and distortions that may significantly alter the mechanical and electrical properties of what is being fabricated. This problem becomes more pronounced since photomask complexity rises with the complexity of new semiconductor chips. This research fills a critical knowledge gap in inspection technology and fundamental identification of photomask defects by using knife-edge diffraction interferometry (KEDI) and artificial neural network models. Through insights obtained from rigorous simulation tools and experimental results, the research team determines that the printability of lithography photomask defects can be quantitatively characterized prior to lithography operation and the simulation model can be extended to compensate for image distortions that occur during sub-wavelength lithography using printed structures smaller than the wavelength of light.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

半导体是智能手机和电器等各种产品不可或缺的组成部分，该奖项有助于为半导体行业创造光掩模检测和计量方面的新知识。干涉检测技术的出现有助于提高光刻制造的分辨率，促进电子器件的小型化和提高性能，降低成本。 在半导体制造工艺中，具有允许光以限定图案照射通过的孔和棱镜的光掩模是用于光刻的使能技术。光掩模缺陷，例如不需要的图案、污染和衬底缺陷，成为光刻工艺和图案化中越来越重要的不准确性来源。该奖项支持基础研究，以开发光掩模检查，计量，设计和制造中的新测量原理。该项目的检测技术和模拟方法使光掩模质量的确定。该方法识别光掩模缺陷，创建缺陷模型并补偿光刻制造误差。因此，本研究通过自动化光掩模缺陷分析过程为光掩模制造商提供了显著的时间和成本节约，这有利于光掩模，光刻机和半导体制造业，从而有利于美国经济。该项目为学生提供跨学科的研究经验，通过精密计量实习计划扩大了代表性不足的群体在研究中的参与，并通过机械测量和精密机床课程影响工程教育。随着光掩模行业朝着越来越小的技术节点发展，对更积极的检查的需求变得至关重要。光掩模检查涉及检查用于半导体器件制造的所制造的光掩模的正确性。有缺陷的光掩模的投影图像表现为不规则性，例如，比设计的更窄或更宽的线宽、图案的线边缘粗糙度以及可能显著改变正在制造的东西的机械和电性能的变形。由于光掩模的复杂性随着新的半导体芯片的复杂性而增加，因此该问题变得更加突出。本研究填补了一个关键的知识空白，在检测技术和基本识别的光掩模缺陷，使用刀口衍射干涉术（KEDI）和人工神经网络模型。通过从严格的模拟工具和实验结果中获得的见解，研究小组确定，光刻光掩模缺陷的可印刷性可以在光刻操作之前定量表征，并且模拟模型可以扩展以补偿在亚光刻期间发生的图像失真。使用小于光波长的印刷结构的波长光刻。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被视为通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，

项目成果

REVIEW OF KEI METHOD-BASED DIMENSIONAL MEASUREMENT, POSITIONING CONTROL AND PART INSPECTION

基于 KEI 方法的尺寸测量、定位控制和零件检测综述

• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Manufacturing Engineering and Science Conference
• 作者: Wang, Zhikun;Lee, ChaBum
• 通讯作者: Lee, ChaBum

A Fringe Pattern Analysis Technique for Photomask Line-Edge-Roughness Characterization

光掩模线边缘粗糙度表征的条纹图案分析技术

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: American Society of Mechanical Engineers: Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference
• 作者: Zhikun Wang, Kuan Lu

Preliminary study of photomask pattern inspection by beam-shaped knife-edge interferometry

光束形刀口干涉光掩模图形检测初步研究

• DOI: 10.1016/j.precisioneng.2022.05.011
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Precision Engineering
• 作者: Wang, Zhikun;Lin, Pengfei;Lee, ChaBum
• 通讯作者: Lee, ChaBum

Qualitative Edge Topology Inspection and Interpretation by Enhanced Knife-Edge Interferometry

通过增强型刀口干涉测量法进行定性边缘拓扑检查和解释

• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: American Society for Precision Engineering
• 作者: Zhikun Wang;ChaBum Lee
• 通讯作者: ChaBum Lee