Improved methodology for prediction of merged contact hole defect process window

Andreas Frommhold; Dorin Cerbu; Gijsbert Rispens; Mark John Maslow; Paulina Rincon Delgadillo

doi:10.1117/12.2658306

28 April 2023 Improved methodology for prediction of merged contact hole defect process window

Andreas Frommhold, Dorin Cerbu, Gijsbert Rispens, Mark John Maslow, Paulina Rincon Delgadillo

Proceedings Volume 12494, Optical and EUV Nanolithography XXXVI; 124940L (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2658306
Event: SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning, 2023, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

Tail CD was previously introduced as an empirical metric that correlates the CD distributions rather than mean CD to observed defect failure rates. It was found useful for the prediction of defect process windows, but also showed its limitation on the “merge” defect in dense hexagonal contact hole patterns. Results of a follow-up study are shown here to address this limitation by exercising the Tail CD concept on a new metric called ‘Wall CD’. The Wall CD showed orientation-depended performance that could be traced back to the illumination shape explaining the predominance of diagonal merges in the contact hole failure rates. Verification of the new approach demonstrated a significant improvement in the accuracy of the predicted defect process window. Furthermore, we utilized data analytics techniques to investigate the impact of additional parameters collected during the Wall CD extraction. This analysis demonstrated, in addition to the mean and variance, the importance of the higher statistical moments (skew, kurtosis) of the distributions for the prediction of defects and the relevance of incorporating further parameters into defect models.

Citation Download Citation

Andreas Frommhold, Dorin Cerbu, Gijsbert Rispens, Mark John Maslow, and Paulina Rincon Delgadillo "Improved methodology for prediction of merged contact hole defect process window", Proc. SPIE 12494, Optical and EUV Nanolithography XXXVI, 124940L (28 April 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2658306

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