Development of An Integrated Proximity Effect Correction Scheme

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衍射而导致的写入图案的模糊。 随着电路图案中的最小特征尺寸作为增加电路密度的努力而不断减小，邻近效应已经成为严重的问题。 在没有有效的邻近效应校正方法的情况下，可以制造的电路图案的密度（容量）将受到显著限制。 在未来，邻近效应校正预计将是电子束和光学光刻纳米制造的一个重要步骤。 大多数以前提出的邻近效应校正方案要么是不够普遍的现实电路或太耗时，用于大的电路图案。 本研究计画的主要目的是发展一套完整的邻近效应修正方案，以克服先前方案的缺点，满足未来的需求。 作为实现这一目标的第一步，一个分层的基于规则的方法，命名为PYRAMID，电子束光刻邻近效应校正提出了较早。 它的第一个实现，PYRAMID 1.0，设计用于均匀的基板已经完成。 PYRAMID 1.0已通过计算机模拟和实验证明，能够校正高密度电路图案的最小特征尺寸下降到0.1 μ m的CD控制和校正速度方面成功。 在这个项目中，PYRAMID将扩展到非均匀和/或非平面基板，光学邻近校正，掩模制作应用，混合（形状和剂量）修改，以更好的CD控制，非矩形基元和超大规模图案。 此外，分布式实现的PYRAMID软件，建议利用网络的工作站，这是现成的这些天的计算能力。 ***

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. ***