The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Understanding illumination effects for control of optical proximity effects (OPE)
Abstract
Optical lithography has had great success in recent history in utilizing the most advanced optical technology to create NA=1.35 immersion lenses. These lenses have aberration levels at or below the 5m level. Much of this is due to advancements in lens design, materials, and aspheric polishing techniques. Now that the lenses are nearly "perfect", more attention is being given to the illuminator and its performance. This paper examines the fundamental metrics that are used to analyze the illumination source shape as it pertains to the optical proximity effect (OPE). It is found that the more traditional metric of partial coherence, σ, is often not sufficient to explain through pitch CD performance. Metrics are introduced to compare multiple sources and compared to their correlation to OPE with respect to a reference. A new parametric model for annular illumination is introduced and shown to correlate within an RMS=0.03nm of the OPE data.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Extreme ultraviolet lithography
Kazazis, D., Santaclara, J. G., van Schoot, J., Mochi, I., & Ekinci, Y. (2024) · Nature Reviews Methods Primers · doi:10.1038/s43586-024-00361-z · Cited by 149
“In practice, a number of resolution enhancement techniques are used, such as optical proximity correction 76 , source-mask optimization 79 and inverse lithography technology 80 .”
Wei, L., & Li, Y. (2014) · Optik · doi:10.1016/j.ijleo.2014.06.116 · Cited by 9
Challenges for patterning process models applied to large scale
Sturtevant, J. L. (2012) · Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B Nanotechnology and Microelectronics Materials Processing Measurement and Phenomena · doi:10.1116/1.3695646 · Cited by 5
Enabling process window improvement at 45nm and 32nm with free-form DOE illumination
Coskun, T. H., Sezginer, A., Kamat, V. G., et al. (2009) · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · doi:10.1117/12.814215 · Cited by 5
Study of methods for discretizing a source when modelling a photolithographic image
Ivanova, T., & Zueva, L. V. (2012) · Journal of Optical Technology · doi:10.1364/jot.79.000295 · Cited by 2
Kernel-based parametric analytical model of source intensity distributions in lithographic tools
Liu, S., Liu, W., Zhou, X., et al. (2012) · Applied Optics · doi:10.1364/ao.51.001479 · Cited by 2
“also reported an analytical smooth source model with nearly 20 parameters to describe different kinds of intensity distortions [16].”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialThrough-Pitch CD Control with TiN metal hardmask etch Process in Logic BEOL Patterning
Hsu, L. (2025) · doi:10.1109/cstic64481.2025.11017927 · Cited by 1
“CD-through pitch, also known as optical proximity effect (OPE), matching between scanners is one of the important monitoring items [3,4,5].”
Process transfer strategies between ASML immersion scanners
He, Y., Engblom, P. D., Zhou, J., et al. (2009) · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · doi:10.1117/12.816417 · Cited by 1
Self-citationZeng, Z., Zhang, F., Huang, H., et al. (2018) · International Conference on Optical and Photonic Engineering (icOPEN) · doi:10.1117/12.2501208 · Cited by 1
A Scanner Matching Method based on Interior-point BFGS Algorithm
Chen, Y., Li, S., He, J., et al. (2021) · International Workshop on Advanced Patterning Solutions (IWAPS) · doi:10.1109/iwaps54037.2021.9671250
Radial distortion-aware digital micromirror device (DMD)-based inverse lithography technology
Yang, S., Zhang, L., Dong, L., Su, X., Su, Y., & Wei, Y. (2026) · Microelectronics Journal · doi:10.1016/j.mejo.2026.107415
Metadata
- Authors
- Flagello, D. G., Geh, B., Socha, R., Liu, P., Cao, Y., Stas, R., Natt, O., & Zimmermann, J.
- Affiliations
- ASML (United States) (US)
- ASML (Netherlands) (NL)
- Carl Zeiss (Germany) (DE)
- Venue
- SPIE Proceedings
- Publisher
- SPIE
- Published
- 2008-03-14
- Volume
- 6924
- Pages
- 69241U
- ISSN
- 0277-786X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2053221764
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 0.95
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Advancements in Photolithography Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Advanced optical system design
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Radiation › Advanced X-ray Imaging Techniques
- Keywords
- optical proximity effect, photolithography, annular illumination, partial coherence, critical dimension control, immersion lens
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
