Automated flow for site definition and CD measurement with a SEM for use in mask production

摘要

The continuous tightening of CD and registration specifications demands most advanced metrology equipment and highly sophisticated logistics and measurement strategies. Not only the smallness of structures but also the increasing number of measurement sites is a challenge. Until recently, CD measurements in mask mass production were done at a handful of different positions using mainly optical microscopy. The measurement locations were usually picked randomly according to the visual image and some general rules that were agreed upon between lithographers and the mask shop. In this paper we describe a flow for SEM based CD measurement in automated production. A new type of instances is introduced solely to provide a simple and effective way for transferring the desired measurement locations from design to a mask shop. Therefore, we use the new CATS features that allow highly automated and flexible off-line preparation of measurement jobs. On the KLA-Tencor 8250-R CD-SEM we furthermore utilize its capability of converting CATS output files into fully functional SEM measurement jobs with large numbers of sites and multiple steps of pattern recognition. A comparison of results obtained with the CATS jobs with those of native SEM jobs proves the consistency of data.