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A new, second generation AIMS fab 193 system has been developed which is capable of emulating lithographic imaging of any type of reticles such as binary and phase shift masks (PSM) including resolution enhancement technologies (RET) such as optical proximity correction (OPC) or scatter bars. The system emulates the imaging process by adjustment of the lithography equivalent illumination and imaging conditions of 193nm wafer steppers including circular, annular, dipole and quadrupole type illumination modes. The AIMS fab 193 allows a rapid prediction of wafer printability of critical mask features, including dense patterns and contacts, defects or repairs by acquiring through-focus image stacks by means of a CCD camera followed by quantitative image analysis. Moreover the technology can be readily applied to directly determine the process window of a given mask under stepper imaging conditions. Since data acquisition is performed electronically, AIMS in many applications replaces the need for costly and time consuming wafer prints using a wafer stepper/ scanner followed by CD SEM resist or wafer analysis. The AIMS fab 193 second generation system is designed for 193nm lithography mask printing predictability down to the 65nm node. In addition to hardware improvements a new modular AIMS software is introduced allowing for a fully automated operation mode. Multiple pre-defined points can be visited and through-focus AIMS measurements can be executed automatically in a recipe based mode. To increase the effectiveness of the automated operation mode, the throughput of the system to locate the area of interest, and to acquire the through-focus images is increased by almost a factor of two in comparison with the first generation AIMS systems. In addition a new software plug-in concept is realised for the tools. One new feature has been successfully introduced as "Global CD Map", enabling automated investigation of global mask quality based on the local determination of wafer level CD at multiple pre-defined measurement points on the mask. This feature supports both reticle manufacturing in mask shops and lithographic process analysis in the Wafer Fab environment. Based on the newly developed software the AIMS can speed up mask development in both the design process and OPC verification.
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