Library search is one of the most commonly used methods for solving the inverse problem in optical scatterometry. The final measurement accuracy of the conventional library search method highly depends on the grid interval selected for each parameter in the signature library, and the time cost of the parameter extraction increases dramatically when the grid interval is decreasing. In this paper, we propose a correction-based library search method to improve the measurement accuracy for a pre-generated signature library. We derive a formulation to estimate the error between the expected solution of the inverse problem and the actually searched solution obtained by the conventional library search method. Then we use the estimate of the error as a correction term to correct the actually searched solution to improve the measurement accuracy. Experiments performed on a photoresist grating have demonstrated that the proposed correction-based library search method can achieve much more accurate measurement with negligible computational penalty to the conventional library search method in the parameter extraction. It has also been observed that the correction-based library search method has higher measurement accuracy and less time cost than the interpolation-based library search method. The proposed correction-based library search method is expected to provide a more practical means to solve the inverse problem in state-of-the-art optical scatterometry.
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