SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND APPARATUSES FOR IMPLEMENTING FAILURE PREDICTION AND PROCESS WINDOW OPTIMIZATION IN CHROMELESS PHASE LITHOGRAPHY

摘要

Predicting a failure mode in a negative and positive focus including patterning a wafer using a test mask at each of a plurality of varied focus steps to expose a plurality of features of the test mask into the wafer at each of the plurality of varied focus steps; capturing images of the plurality of features exposed; identifying any location where one or more of the plurality of features fails to expose correctly; and creating a predictor for each failure mode by correlating the location at which the respective feature failed to expose correctly into the wafer and the focus step at which the feature failed to correctly expose into the wafer. Feedback from predictor is applied via Optical Proximity Correction to the output mask by fine-tuning output mask shape or with negative Sub-Resolution Assisting Features (SRAFs) to align center focus for overall process window improvement.