Throughput compensation through optical proximity correction for realization of an extreme ultraviolet pellicle

Abstract

The absorption of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light by the mask-protecting pellicle could be the most critical problem preventing widespread EUV adoption because EUV source power is still too limited to facilitate its use in mass production. We found that transmission loss due to the EUV pellicle could be compensated through the use of proper optical proximity correction (OPC) applied to the mask-pellicle system. Patterning results of optical proximity correction corrected masks with different transmission pellicles are shown for various one-dimensional and two-dimensional patterns. From the results, it is clearly shown that we do not need to increase the dose to avoid the throughput loss, even when using a pellicle with 80% one-pass transmission. The OPC process described in this paper can speed EUV adoption by allowing the use of much thicker films with higher absorption. (C) 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)