Research of high-transmission phase-shift mask on critical dimension uniformity in ArF lithography

EUV is considered to be the promising lithography technology for the continuous evolution of semiconductor nodes. However, the mainstream ArF/Immersion lithography are still used in current industry and keep continual develop process node ahead. The performance of the mask determines the quality of lithography process directly. Litho-images on wafer come from mask pattern. The quality control of exposure image like local CD uniformity(LCDU) become the most critical factor except the optical proximity correction (OPC) effect. In view of the great challenge of LCDU improvement of small hole pattern on the of 1xnm process research and development. How to use ArF/Immersion lithography technology to improve the performance of hole pattern is this research topic. A new high transmission phase shift mask(HT-PSM) developed on the common ArF/Immersion platform and compared with the performance of normalized image log slope(NILS), mask error enhancement factor(MEEF) and depth of focus (DOF), found that 30%HT-PSM has advantage over the hole pattern. In this paper, research for positive tone development(PTD) and negative tone development(NTD) on high transmission phase shift rate. Different transmission manufacturing processes and application of 30%PSM are compared with conventional 6%PSM. At the same time, litho-image exposure on wafer can be measured and compared in actual research and development. Combine the results of resolution and physical failure analysis(PFA) results, it has higher resolution and good section-cross profile. Meanwhile, the LCDU is improved about 10% batter than conventional PSM mask, which makes an effective contribution to the research and development of advanced process.