Photoresist defect diagnosis using a rigorous topography simulator

Author

Milor, Linda ; Orth, Jonathan ; Steele, Dave ; Phan, Khoi ; Li, Xiaolei ; Strojwas, Andrzej ; Lin, Yung-Tao

Author_Institution

Submicron Dev. Center, Adv. Micro Devices Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA

fYear

1997

fDate

10-12 Sep 1997

Firstpage

42

Lastpage

47

Abstract

Defects in photoresist are often difficult to diagnose, because patterned wafer inspections can only be done after the photoresist is developed. In this paper, defect simulation is used to understand the relation between defects in the photoresist and the resulting photoresist profiles. It is shown that particles and bubbles in the photoresist translate into a wide variety of defective photoresist profiles. Knowledge of the relation between defects and photoresist profiles can assist in yield improvement efforts, since defects may be diagnosed by comparing simulated and observed photoresist profiles

Keywords

bubbles; digital simulation; electronic engineering computing; integrated circuit yield; photoresists; semiconductor process modelling; surface topography; voids (solid); METROPOLE lithography simulator; bubbles; defect simulation; particles; photoresist defect diagnosis; photoresist profiles; topography simulator; yield improvement; Apertures; Computational modeling; Inspection; Lithography; Maxwell equations; Nose; Optical propagation; Resists; Spectroscopy; Surfaces;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference and Workshop, 1997. IEEE/SEMI

Conference_Location

Cambridge, MA

ISSN

1078-8743

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4050-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ASMC.1997.630703

Filename

630703