Patent Application
20170010540
The present invention relates to the field of generating a predetermined three-dimensional contour of an optical component and/or a wafer.
Optical systems have to fulfil increasing demands with respect to their performance. For example, the size of optical components of telescopes steadily increases in order to collect a limited number of photons originating from far distant objects. Slightest deviations of optical components from their predefined surface forms result in a reduction of optical capabilities of the telescopes or generally of optical systems.
On the other hand, microscopes have for example to resolve objects having a very low contrast compared to their surroundings. Moreover, it is requested that projection systems of lithography devices resolve smaller and smaller structures.
Integrated circuits (ICs) are another kind of devices which has to also fulfil steadily increasing demands. According to Moore's law the minimum dimension of structural elements generated on wafers in order to fabricate ICs continuously shrinks.
In the following, the increasing demand on optical systems is exemplified for projection systems, in particular photolithographic projection exposure systems.
As a result of the constantly increasing integration density in the semiconductor industry, photolithographic projection exposure systems and photolithographic masks have to project smaller and smaller structures onto the photoresist arranged on a wafer. In order to fulfil this demand, the exposure wavelength of projection exposure systems has been shifted from the near ultraviolet across the mean ultraviolet into the deep ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Presently, a wavelength of 193 nm is typically used for the exposure of the photoresist on wafers.
As a consequence, the manufacturing of optical components of projection exposure systems is becoming more and more complex, and thus more and more expensive as well. In the future, projection exposure systems will use significantly smaller wavelengths in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelength range of the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g. in the range of 10 nm-15 nm).
In such a wavelength range, EUV optical elements, as for example mirrors or photolithographic masks, have to fulfil highest demands with respect to planarity, pureness and temperature stability. The tolerable deviation of the substrates of these optical elements regarding the planarity is only a portion of a wavelength of the exposure wavelength in order to not significantly disturb the phase front of the electromagnetic wave reflected from a multi-layer structure arranged on a surface of the substrate. Larger deviations of the planarity of the substrate of EUV mirrors and masks may lead to variations of the optical intensity distribution in the photoresist due to a (partial) constructive or destructive addition of the wave front in the photoresist of the wafer. At the further processing of the wafer, the variations of the optical intensity may result in the fabrication of defective semiconductor devices as for examples ICs.
EUV substrates as supplied from the manufacturer may not even fulfil the planarity condition for EUV mirrors and masks. Further, the manufacturing process of mirrors and masks which forms a multilayer structure and fine patterns on one surface of the multilayer structure, respectively, may even deteriorate the planarity of the substrate.
The application Ser. No. 13/179,799, filed on Jul. 11, 2011, and Ser. No. 13/252,480, filed on Oct. 4, 2011, of the applicant describe a two-dimensional model to correct registration errors, transmission errors of transmissive masks, and overlay errors of different masks. They are hereby incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.
The US application Ser. No. 13/084,991, filed on Apr. 12, 2011, of the applicant discloses a method for locally correcting a substrate thickness defect of an EUV mask by the generation of color centers inside the substrate surface. This document is also incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Furthermore, a curvature of the substrate of a photolithographic mask may also lead to imaging errors of an EUV mask. The US 2008/0 032 206 A1 describes a method to improve the planarity of a manufactured photolithographic mask. To adjust a curvature of the substrate or to smooth an unevenness of the substrate, this document proposes forming expansion stress and/or compaction stress generation portions in a predetermined region of the substrate which includes the curved region. The expansion stress and compaction stress generation portions are generated by focussing femtosecond laser pulses in this region which locally modify the bonding state of the substrate.
The documents outlined above provide approximations for the correction of defects of existing optical components. However, the ever increasing defect correction requirements of future high performance optical components are still not met.
Moreover it is observed that wafers sometimes bend during the manufacturing process so that it is difficult to clamp the wafers with a vacuum chuck. The bending seems to be caused by stress which is introduced into the wafer during the manufacturing process of ICs. Presently, wafer bending occurring during the processing of the wafer can only be lowered by reducing the stress induced by various processing steps of the manufacturing process. For this purpose, the processing steps have to be modified. This is an involved task due to the highly complex sequence of processing steps required to fabricate modern ICs. Additionally, it may also be necessary to tolerate performances losses in the electrical function of the fabricated ICs.
As an alternative approach, layers are at the moment developed which can be applied to the rear surface of a wafer and which reduce the bending effect of various processing steps. Adding an additional layer to the rear wafer side would introduce further processing step in an already involved manufacturing process of modern ICs.
In a general aspect, the present invention provides an improved method and apparatus for generating high performance optical components and/or wafers.
According to a further general aspect of the invention, a method for generating a predetermined three-dimensional contour of an optical component and/or a wafer comprises: (a) determining a deviation of an existing three-dimensional contour of the optical component from the predetermined three-dimensional contour; (b) calculating at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses having one or more parameter sets defining the laser pulses for correcting the determined existing deviation of the three-dimensional contour from the predetermined three-dimensional contour; and (c) applying the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses on the optical component and/or the wafer for generating the predetermined three-dimensional contour.
The three-dimensional (3D) approach of the present invention establishes a relation between the laser beam parameters and the parameters of the 3D arrangement of laser pulses on the one hand and the volume deformations induced by a 3D arrangement of laser pulses in an optical component and/or a wafer on the other hand. The establishment of such a relation allows the determination of parameters of the laser beam and the 3D arrangement of laser pulses necessary of the generation of a predetermined 3D contour of the optical component and/or the wafer.
Thus, the approach of the inventive method for the calculation of a 3D arrangement of laser pulses takes into account the 3D nature of optical components and/or wafers. Therefore, it overcomes most of the drawbacks of a two-dimensional approximation as well as of a phenomenological approach typically used up to now. Thus, the inventive method allows calculating one or more 3D arrangements of laser pulses having a single or several parameter sets defining the laser pulses which correct a determined deviation of an optical component and/or a wafer from its predetermined 3D contour. In one embodiment, the inventive method enables the simultaneous correction of deviations of a 3D contour parallel and perpendicular to a surface of an optical component and/or a wafer. Moreover, the inventive method does not only allow correcting of defects of an optical component or a wafer, but also the fabrication of specific optical components from a blank or from a standard optical component.
According to a further aspect, method step (b) further comprises determining elementary volume deformations induced in the optical component and/or the wafer by predefined three-dimensional arrangements of laser pulses having predefined parameter sets and/or having predefined distances of laser pulses in three directions in the arrangements of laser pulses, wherein the three directions are not within a plane.
According to a further aspect, step (b) further comprises determining elementary volume deformations induced in the optical component and/or the wafer by sequentially applying predefined three-dimensional arrangements of laser pulses, the predefined three-dimensional arrangements of laser pulses comprising laser pulses having predefined parameter sets and/or having predefined distances of laser pulses in three directions in the three-dimensional arrangements of laser pulses, wherein the three directions are not within a plane.
For specific materials and/or for specific deviations it may be beneficial to determine the effect of specific predefined arrangements of laser pulses by writing specific predefined 3D arrangements in the material of the optical component and/or the wafer. From the measured volume deformations induced by a number of predefined 3D arrangements of laser pulses, the parameters of the laser pulses and the parameters of the 3D arrangement of laser pulses are calculated for correcting a determined deviation of a 3D contour of an optical component and/or a wafer from their predetermined contours. This approach avoids the determination of deformation volumes from material parameters and complex calculations.
The situation is illustrated in a simple example. For example, a first 3D arrangement of laser pulses is applied to the optical component and/or the wafer in which a (linear) density of laser pulses is higher in the x-direction than in the y-direction. Then in a next step a second 3D arrangement of laser pulses is applied to the optical component and/or the wafer in which the (linear) density of laser pulses is higher in the y-direction than in the x-direction. Alternatively, the density may be kept fixed within the 3D arrangement of laser pulses and a parameter of the laser pulses may be varied.
In another aspect, calculating the at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses comprises: (d) setting up a target functional comprising deviations of the existing three-dimensional contour of the optical component and/or the wafer from the predetermined three-dimensional contour and volume deformations induced by the at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses; and (e) minimizing the target functional by varying the at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses. Varying the at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses comprises varying at least one parameter of the laser pulses.
A further aspect comprises using a Lagrange variational principle for minimizing the target functional.
According to still another aspect, the parameter set defining the laser pulses comprises: an energy of the laser beam, a pulse length, a repetition rate, a number of pulses directed onto one location of the optical component and/or the wafer, a beam polarization, a numerical aperture, a focus size, a beam shape, and/or an astigmatism.
In still a further aspect, parameters of the at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses comprises a size of the arrangement in three directions and a distance between locations of two or more incident laser pulses in three dimensions. In one aspect different laser pulses generate pixels which do not overlap in an area normal to a beam direction in the three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses. In an alternative aspect, laser pulses generate two or more pixels which partially or essentially fully overlap in the area normal to the beam direction in the three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses. In a further aspect two or more pixels overlapping in the area normal to the beam direction fully or partially overlap in the beam direction.
In the case of non-overlapping pixels the effect of the arrangement of laser pulses on an optical component and/or the wafer can be calculated by summing up the effects of the individual pixels. In case of partially or fully overlapping pixels, it is not possible to determine the effect of the three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses by simply adding the effects of individual laser pulses forming a pixel.
Yet another aspect further comprises modifying a mass density and/or an optical transmission of the optical component and/or the wafer by a stress distribution induced by a strain distribution caused by laser pulses, and wherein the stress distribution and the strain distribution are connected by Hooke's law.
A further favourable aspect comprises introducing a three-dimensional grid with nodes Ni penetrating the optical component and/or the wafer, the three-dimensional grid nodes Ni defining elementary volumes α. In the present application the terms elementary volumes and elementary cells are used as synonyms.
According to still another aspect, a displacement ξi of the three-dimensional grid node Ni is a function of the parameter set of the laser pulses and/or the parameters of the at least one arrangement of laser pulses. Another aspect further comprises determining at least one three-dimensional writing density aα and a plurality of writing mode signatures MSim, wherein MSi denotes the components of a single writing mode signature and the index m counts the plurality of writing mode signatures. In case of several three-dimensional writing densities amα the index m also counts the number of writing densities.
In a preferred aspect, the three-dimensional writing density aα in an elementary volume α and the writing mode signature MSi introduce a displacement ξn given by
wherein the tensor (Pnog)−1 is the inverse tensor of a potential energy operating in a displacement space, and Poksαw is an element of the tensor describing the potential operating in a space of normal elementary volume deformation modes, both tensors comprising material parameters of the optical component and/or the wafer, and wherein
are projections of equilibrium deformation displacements for unity writing to the writing mode signature MSi.
This equation connects parameters of the laser pulses and/or the 3D arrangement of laser pulses with their effect onto the optical component and/or the wafer. This means that the inventive method uses material parameters of the optical component and/or the wafer and basic physical law in order to determine the effect that a beam of light pulses induces in a substrate material of the optical component and/or the wafer.
In another aspect, a three-dimensional writing density aα of an arrangement of laser pulses across the optical component and/or the wafer induces a displacement ξn of the grid nodes Nn of the optical component and/or the wafer given by
wherein the tensor (Pnog)−1 is the inverse tensor of a potential operating in the displacement space, and
wherein Pnltαw is an element of the tensor describing the potential operating in the space of normal elementary volume deformation modes, both tensors comprise material parameters of the optical component and/or the wafer, and wherein elt are equilibrium deformation displacements of the grid nodes Ni of the elementary volume α for a unity writing density.
According to still a further aspect, the three-dimensional writing densities amα of R arrangements of laser pulses across the optical component and/or the wafer superimposed in an elementary volume α introduce a displacement ξn given by
In a further aspect, the at least one writing density of the laser beam is below a damage threshold of the optical component and/or the wafer. In an alternative aspect, the at least one writing density of the laser beam is above the damage threshold of the optical component and/or the wafer.
Another aspect further comprises determining a displacement ξn of the three-dimensional grid Nn in an elementary volume α of the optical component and/or the wafer without interactions of the elementary volume α with other elementary volumes of the optical component and/or the wafer. Still a further aspect comprises determining a total deformation of the optical component and/or the wafer by combining the elementary volumes of the optical component and/or the wafer by combining the elementary volumes and minimizing an accumulated potential energy of the combined elementary volumes.
The approach of the last aspect facilitates the complex calculation of the parameters of the laser pulses and the 3D arrangement of laser pulses. Furthermore, the effects of the laser pulses are small in the material of an optical component and/or the wafer and as the experimental resolution is presently limited this approach may be very useful.
According to another aspect, step (a) further comprises measuring the existing three-dimensional contour of the optical component and/or the wafer. In another aspect measuring the existing three-dimensional contour further comprises using a contact profilometer, a pseudo-contact profilometer, a non-contact profilometer, an interferometer, a white light interferometer, a confocal microscope, a photomask metrology tool, a scanning electron microscope and/or a combination of these devices.
According to a further aspect, step (a) further comprises determining deviations Δφi of the three-dimensional contour of the optical component and/or the wafer at positions i from the difference of the determined existing locations φidet. and the predetermined locations φipredet.. In a further aspect, step (b) further comprises minimizing the target functional
wherein ζi is the displacement at the position i generated by R writing densities ajm, and wherein the last term is a Tikhonow regularization with the regulation coefficients λ.
A beneficial aspect further comprises applying laser pulses to the optical component and/or the wafer which can essentially transmit the optical component and/or the wafer.
In this context as well as on further positions of this description the term “essentially” means a numeric value of a quantity within its measurement limit.
Another aspect further comprises selecting a wavelength of the laser pulses so that a photon energy of the laser pulses is lower than a band gap energy of the optical component and/or the wafer.
In still a further aspect, the photon energy of the laser pulses is lower than 0.95, preferred lower than 0.9, more preferred lower than 0.8, and most preferred lower than 0.7 the band gap energy of the optical component and/or the wafer.
According to an advantageous aspect, the photon energy of the laser pulses is lower than 0.95, preferred lower than 0.9, more preferred lower than 0.8, and most preferred lower than 0.7 the band gap energy of the material of a processed wafer having the lowest band gap energy, and wherein the processed wafer comprises one or more integrated circuits or at least a part of the one or more integrated circuits.
In a further aspect, the optical component comprises an optical component for extreme ultraviolet wavelength radiation, in particular a mirror or a photolithographic mask for extreme ultraviolet radiation.
According to another aspect, the optical component for extreme ultraviolet wavelength radiation comprises a transparent conductive coating on a rear surface which is opposite to a front surface having a multilayer structure, and wherein the transparent conductive layer is optically transparent in the near infrared, the visible, and/or the near ultraviolet wavelength range. In still a further aspect, the transparent conductive coating comprises tin oxide, indium tin oxide, antimony tin oxide, aluminium zinc oxide, or a combination of these materials.
In still another aspect, step (a) comprises determining a flatness deviation of the rear surface of the optical component for extreme ultraviolet radiation, and step (c) comprises applying the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses for flattening the rear surface of the optical component for extreme ultraviolet radiation. According to yet a further aspect, step (a) comprises determining the flatness deviation of the rear surface of a photolithographic mask for extreme ultraviolet radiation after arranging the multilayer structure and an absorber layer on the front surface, but before patterning the absorber layer, and step (c) comprises applying the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses for flattening the rear surface of the photolithographic mask for extreme ultraviolet radiation.
In yet another aspect, step (a) comprises determining the flatness deviation of the rear surface of the optical component for extreme ultraviolet radiation after removing the multilayer structure from a peripheral area of the front surface, and step (c) comprises applying the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses for flattening the rear surface of the optical component for extreme ultraviolet radiation. According to still a further beneficial aspect, step (a) comprises determining the flatness deviation of the multilayer structure of the optical component for extreme ultraviolet radiation from a predetermined flatness of the multilayer structure, and step (c) comprises applying the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses for generating the predetermined flatness of the multilayer structure of the optical component for extreme ultraviolet radiation.
The inventive method can be applied between various steps in the fabrication process of an EUV mask in order to avoid the generation of defects during the mask fabrication process.
According to another aspect, step (a) comprises determining the deviation of pattern elements of a transmissive photolithographic mask from a predetermined pattern, and step (c) comprises applying the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses for generating the predetermined pattern. According to a beneficial aspect, step (a) comprises determining the deviation of an optical transmission across a transmissive photolithographic mask from a predetermined optical transmission, and step (c) comprises applying the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses for generating the predetermined optical transmission. In another aspect, step (a) comprises determining the deviation of pattern elements and the optical transmission across a transmissive photolithographic mask from the predetermined pattern and the predetermined optical transmission, and step (c) comprises applying the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses for simultaneously generating the predetermined pattern and the predetermined optical transmission across the transmissive photolithographic mask.
It is one of the advantages of the 3D approach of the inventive method to enable the correction of several deficits of an optical component by the application of a single 3D arrangement of laser pulses or by a single writing step.
In a further aspect, step (a) comprises determining the deviation of a flat optical component from a predetermined three-dimensional optical contour, and step (c) comprises applying the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses for generating the predetermined three-dimensional optical contour of the originally flat optical component.
By using a 3D approach the inventive method has the potential to fabricate specific optical components from a given blank.
In still another aspect, step (a) comprises determining a deviation of a spherical contour of an optical component from a predetermined aspherical contour, and step (c) comprises applying the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses for generating the predetermined aspherical contour of the optical component.
Moreover, the inventive method allows fabricating of specific optical components from standard cost-effective optical components. If the 3D contour of the standard optical component is provided by the manufacturer of the standard component, step (a) of the inventive method does not have to be performed.
According to another preferred aspect, step (a) comprises determining the deviation of a contact surface of a frustrated total internal reflection shutter from a predetermined contact surface of the frustrated total internal reflection shutter, and step (c) comprises applying the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses for generating the predetermined contact surface of the frustrated total internal reflection shutter.
In a further aspect, step (a) comprises determining the deviation of the three-dimensional contour of a nanoimprint lithography template from the predetermined three-dimensional contour of the nanoimprint lithography template, and step (c) comprises applying the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses for generating the predetermined three-dimensional contour of the nanoimprint lithography template.
According to another beneficial aspect, the wafer comprises a semiconductor material, or the wafer comprises compound semiconductor material. In an advantageous aspect, the semiconductor material comprises silicon. In a preferred aspect, the wafer comprises at least a portion of one or more integrated circuits.
Apart from optical components, wafers are a second kind of components or devices to which the above defined method can be applied. As already mentioned in the second part of this description, wafers may bend during the fabrication steps in a semiconductor factory. The bending gets worse with shrinking structural elements and more complex ICs. The method described above can be used within the production process of ICs to correct a bending of processed or partly processed wafers accumulated during the manufacturing process in a semiconductor factory. Thus, the defined method can at least partly avoid performance losses of future ICs.
In another aspect, the wafer comprises silicon and the wavelength of the laser pulses are in the range of 1.0 μm-8.0 μm, preferred 1.3 μm-7.0 μm, and most preferred from 1.5 μm-6.0 μm.
A further aspect comprises selecting a wavelength for the laser pulses so that the energy of the laser pulses is close to the band gap energy of the wafer. In still another aspect, the wafer comprises silicon and the wavelength of the laser pulses is <1300 nm, more preferred <1200 nm, and most preferred <1100 nm.
According to a preferred aspect, the introduction of the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses into the wafer bends the wafer. In a beneficial aspect, the introduction of the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses into the wafer compensates the bending of the wafer occurring during processing the wafer.
In another aspect, the at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses is asymmetrically introduced into the wafer with respect to the depth of the wafer.
In still a further aspect, the wafer comprises a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) and/or a photonic integrated circuit.
A further aspect comprises introducing the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses into the wafer through a front side of the wafer, wherein the wafer is processed on the front side to generate one or more integrated circuits. According to yet another aspect, the energy of the laser pulses is lower than the material of the integrated circuits having the lowest band gap energy.
Another aspect comprises introducing the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses into the wafer through a rear side of the wafer, which is opposite to the front side on which the wafer is processed to generate one or more integrated circuits.
A further beneficial aspect further comprises: (f) determining a remaining deviation of a generated three-dimensional contour of the optical component and/or the wafer from the predetermined three-dimensional contour; (g) ending the method if the remaining deviation is smaller than a predetermined threshold; and (h) repeating steps (b) and (c) if the remaining deviation is larger or equal than the predetermined threshold.
In another advantageous aspect, the optical component is optically transparent in the near infrared, the visible and/or the near ultraviolet wavelength range.
This aspect secures that step (c) of the inventive method can actually be performed on the optical component and/or the wafer.
According to a further aspect, an apparatus for generating a predetermined three-dimensional contour of an optical component and/or a wafer comprises: (a) a metrology tool operable to determine a deviation of an existing three-dimensional contour of the optical component and/or the wafer from the predetermined three-dimensional contour; (b) a computing unit operable to calculate at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses having one or more parameter sets defining the laser pulses for correcting the determined existing deviation of the three-dimensional contour from the predetermined three-dimensional contour; and (c) a light source operable to apply the calculated at least one three-dimensional arrangement of laser pulses for generating the predetermined three-dimensional contour of the optical component and/or the wafer.
In another aspect, the metrology tool comprises a contact profilometer, a pseudo-contact profilometer, a non-contact profilometer, an interferometer, a white light interferometer, a confocal microscope, a photomask metrology tool, and/or a scanning electron microscope.
According to a further beneficial aspect, the computing unit comprises a microprocessor, a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a central processing unit and/or a combination thereof.
In still another aspect, the light source comprises a laser source operable to generate a beam of ultra-short laser pulses and a scanning means operable to generate the at least one arrangement of laser pulses. In yet a further aspect, the laser source comprises a Ti: sapphire laser system and/or a YAG laser system doped with at least one element of the group which comprises: neodymium (Nd), thulium (Tm), holmium (Ho), and erbium (Er). Finally, the apparatus is adapted to be integrated in a semiconductor manufacturing equipment in a semiconductor factory.
In order to better understand the present invention and to appreciate its practical applications, the following Figures are provided and referenced hereafter. It should be noted that the Figures are given as examples only and in no way limit the scope of the invention.
This part of the specification is organized as follows: It begins with the description of some optical components and some exemplified apparatuses used for the determination of an existing three-dimensional (3D) contour of the optical component for the calculation of a 3D arrangement of laser pulses and for the application of the calculated 3D arrangement of laser pulses onto an optical element in order to bring the existing 3D contour in accordance with a predetermined 3D contour. In the second part entitled “application examples” the inventive method is applied in part a. to generate predetermined 3D contours of photolithographic masks and in part b. of wafers. Finally, the theoretical and/or mathematical background of the inventive method necessary for the discussion of the various examples in this section is presented in an own section entitled “theoretical background”.
Examples of an Optical Component, a Metrology Tool and a Laser System
In the following, the present invention will be more fully described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying Figures, in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are illustrated. However, the present invention may be embodied in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and will convey the scope of the invention to persons skilled in the art.
In the following, the present invention is described by taking photolithographic masks and wafers as examples. However, the present invention can also be applied to optical elements used in telescopes, microscopes and/or laser system to just mention a few examples. Further, the operation wavelength range of optical components is not restricted to the wavelengths used in lithography. Rather, the optical components may be processed with the inventive method across the entire optical range. Moreover, the present invention is not restricted to silicon wafers as described below. Rather, it can be applied to all kind of wafers during the fabrication processes of any kind of integrated circuits.
Finally, the method defined in the third section of this description can be applied to all components whose material(s) is (are) transparent for a specific wavelength range of the electromagnetic spectrum. If a material of a component fulfils this requirement pixels can be introduced into the material of the component. The transparent wavelength range needs only to be small (<100 nm) since laser systems are typically utilized to generate the laser pulses for writing pixels into the material of the component. It is presently preferred that the transparent wavelength range of a material of a component is in the ultra-violet, the visible and/or the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum as numerous laser sources are available for these spectral ranges.
The multi-layer mirror system 255 comprises, for example, approximately 40 pairs of alternating molybdenum (Mo) 250 and silicon (Si) layers 260. The thickness of each Mo layer 250 is 4.15 nm and that of the Si layer 260 amounts to 2.80 nm. In order to protect the multi-layer structure 255, a capping layer 270 of silicon with a native oxide of 7 nm depth is arranged on top of the structure 255. In the multi-layer mirror system 255, the Mo layers 250 act as scattering layers, whereas the silicon layers 260 function as separation layers. For the scattering layers instead of Mo other elements with a high Z number may utilized, such as cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), tungsten (W), rhenium (Re) and iridium (Ir).
The multi-layer structure 255 on the substrate 210 acts as a mirror for EUV electromagnetic radiation. In order to become a photolithographic mask 200, a buffer structure 280 and an absorbing structure 290 are additionally deposited on the capping layer 270. The buffer layer 280 may be deposited to protect the multi-layer mirror structure 255 during processing, for example during etching of the absorbing structure 290. Possible buffer structure materials are for example fused silica (SiO2), silicon-oxygen-nitride (SiON), ruthenium (Ru), chromium (Cr), and/or chromium nitride (CrN). The absorbing structure 290 comprises a material having a large absorption constant for photons in the EUV wavelength range. Examples of these materials are chromium (Cr) and/or tantalum nitride (CrN). Typically, a thickness of about 50 nm is sufficient to absorb essentially all EUV photons 295 incident on the absorbing structure 290. In contrast, the majority of the photons 295 incident on the capping layer 270 is reflected as photons 297.
Typically, the substrate 210 of the EUV mask 200 also has lateral dimensions of 152 mm×152 mm and a thickness or height of essentially 6.35 mm. The rear surface 225 of the substrate 210 or the rear substrate surface 225 has a thin metallic coating 220. Typically this coating 220 comprises chromium. The metallic coating 220 is used to fix the photolithographic mask 200 at the EUV scanner by the application of electrostatic forces.
In the methods for generating a predetermined 3D contour of an optical component, as for example an EUV mask 200 described in the following, energy from light pulses of a light beam is locally deposited in the substrate 210 of the EUV mask 200. However, the light pulses of the light beam can neither penetrate the front substrate surface 230, as they are absorbed by the multi-layer mirror structure 255, nor the rear substrate surface 225, as they are also absorbed by the metallic coating 220 on the rear substrate surface 225.
Therefore, the metallic coating 220 on the rear substrate surface 225 of the EUV mask 200 is replaced by a transparent conductive coating 222, as it is shown in
Alternative materials for transparent conductive coatings are for example fluorine tin oxide (FTO) and/or aluminium zinc oxide (AZO) and/or antimony tin oxide (ATO). These materials can easily be applied to the rear substrate surface 225 of a fused silica substrate 210 and have a conductivity which is high enough to fix the mask 200 to the EUV scanner. The transparent conductive coating 222 enables to irradiate the completely manufactured EUV mask 200 with light pulses of a laser beam through the rear substrate surface 225. The transparent conductive coating 222 also allows applying ultra-short laser pulses to the EUV mask 200 during its manufacturing process if the coating 222 is arranged on the mask blank or on the rear substrate surface 225 in a first step of the mask manufacturing process.
An EUV mirror may have the structure of the photolithographic mask 200 unless it does not have the buffer layer 280 and the absorbing structure 290. Therefore, also for an EUV mirror the metallic coating 220 may be replaced by a transparent conductive coating 222, so that the light pulses are able to enter into the substrate from the rear substrate surface (not shown in
The diagram 300 of
When fixing the blank 310 with a chuck so that its rear surface 340 is not flattened during the generation of an EUV mask from the substrate 310, an even or a predetermined front surface contour of the EUV mask may be fabricated. However, when fixing the mask manufactured from the substrate 310 on an EUV scanner, the electrostatic forces of its stage will flatten the deviations 360 and 370 of the rear substrate surface 340 to an essentially flat surface 350. This in turn will lead to aberrations of the multilayer structure 255 arranged on the substrate 310 compared with the essentially ideal EUV mask 200 of
Presently, the absorbing structure 290 of an EUV mask 200 is typically generated by patterning a layer of absorbing material with an electron beam writer. In this process, the EUV mask 200 is not fixed by an electrostatic chuck. This means that the non-flat rear surface 340 of the mask blank 310 is essentially not changed during the patterning process. Therefore, an EUV mask having a rear substrate surface contour 340 as indicated in
In the following, the operational principle of a confocal sensor 400 or a confocal microscope 400 is outlined. A confocal microscope 400 uses a point illumination of a pinhole in an optically conjugate plane in front of a detector to eliminate out-of-focus signal components. In the example of
For example, the light source 420 may be a laser source. If an optical fiber 425 is used for guiding the electromagnetic radiation from the light source to the pinhole 430, the pinhole 430 may be omitted as the fiber 425 has a similar effect as the pinhole 430. The detector 475 may for example be a photodiode, an avalanche photodiode, or a photomultiplier.
A photomask or generally an optical component 410 may be arranged on a sample stage 405. The sample stage 405 may be movable and is moved by a scan unit 480 in a plane which is perpendicular to the incident light beam (x- and/or y-direction). For example, micromanipulators or servomotors can be used for moving the sample stage 405 (not shown in
A control unit 470 controls the light source 420, the detector 475 as well as the scan unit 480. It is also possible that the control unit 470 controls the movement of the objective 440 (not shown in
The resolution of the confocal microscope 400 in lateral direction is limited by diffraction. This means that the lateral resolution depends on the diameter or opening of the pinholes 430 and 465, the numerical aperture (NA) of the objective 440 as well as on the wavelength of the light source 420. In lateral direction the resolution is in the range of the wavelength of the light source 420. The resolution in the beam direction is not diffraction limited, but limited by the determination of the position of the maximum intensity. The resolution in beam direction reaches the one digit nanometer range.
The apparatus 500 includes a pulse laser source 530 which produces a beam or a light beam 535 of pulses or light pulses. The laser source 530 generates light pulses of variable duration. The pulse duration may be as low as 10 fs but may also be continuously increased up to 100 ps. The pulse energy of the light pulses generated by the pulsed laser source 530 can also be adjusted across a huge range reaching from 0.0010 per pulse up to 10 mJ per pulse. Further, the repetition rate of the light pulses comprises the range from 1 Hz to 100 MHz. In a preferred embodiment the light pulses may be generated by a Ti:sapphire laser operating at a wavelength of about 800 nm. However, the methods described in the following are not limited to this laser type, principally all laser types may be used having a photon energy which is smaller than the band gap of the optical component 510 and which are able to generate ultra-short pulses with durations in the femtosecond range. This criterion also holds for wafers. Generally, the emission wavelength of the apparatus 500 has to be adapted for the band gap of the optical component 510 or of a wafer.
Therefore, for example YAG laser systems doped with at least one of the elements neodymium (Nd), thulium (Tm), holmium (Ho), and erbium (Er) can also be used. As a further example dye laser systems may also be applied. The apparatus 500 may also comprise more than one pulse laser source 530 of the same type or of different types (not shown in
The requirement that the band gap of the optical component 510 is larger than the emission wavelength of the laser source used to apply ultra-short laser pulses is typically equivalent to the requirement that the optical component 510 is optically transparent in the near-infrared, the visible, and/or the near-ultraviolet wavelength range. In these wavelength ranges laser sources are available which can generate ultra-short pulses having a large energy density.
The following table represents an overview of laser beam parameters of a frequency-doubled Nd-YAG laser system which is used in an embodiment of the inventive method.
The pulse density refers to a 2D density in a plane perpendicular to the beam direction (lateral plane).
As indicated in table 1, the parameter ranges of laser pulses used for the generation of pixel are large. Hence, the properties of pixels are also quite different. Typically, a laser pulse does not generate a pixel in the form of a sphere but creates a pixel having a form similar to an ellipsoid or a spheroid. The length of the spheroid is in a range of 1 μm to 50 μm and its width or thickness extends for examples from 0.5 μm to 10 μm. Characteristic lengths to thickness ratios are in the range of 2 to 10. As indicated in table 1, pixel densities in the lateral plane are 103 to 107 pixels per square mm. One-dimensional pixel densities in beam direction cover a range of 1 to 100 pixel(s) per mm.
The following tables indicate parameters of differently influencing the density and/or the optical transmission distribution of the substrate 110 of the photomask 100. Table 2 presents parameters of an embodiment using a frequency-doubled Nd-YAG laser system for a mode of introducing or writing pixels called standard process window (std PW).
Table 3 summarizes parameters of a mode called low registration process window (LowReg PW) again of an embodiment using a frequency-doubled Nd-YAG laser system. This operation mode of the laser system 530 uses light pulses having a lower energy than the std PW, but introduces a higher pixel density.
The following table lists parameters for a mode called no registration process window (NoReg PW) which is characterized by further reducing the energy of the light pulses of the laser system 530.
Table 5 presents parameters of a mode called pixelless process window (pixelless PW). In this case, a Ti: Sapphire laser system is used for the modification of the density and/or the optical transmission distribution of an optical component. This laser system generates ultra-short laser pulses at an emission wavelength of about 800 nm. The pulse density of the pixelless PW is very high.
The steering mirror 590 directs the pulsed laser beam 535 into the focusing objective 540. The objective 540 focuses the pulsed laser beam 535 through the rear substrate surface into the substrate of the photolithographic mask 510. The NA (numerical aperture) of the applied objective depends on the predetermined spot size of the focal point and the position of the focal point within the substrate of the transmissive mask 510 relative to the rear substrate surface. As indicated in table 1, the NA of the objective 540 may be up to 0.9 which results in a focal point spot diameter of essentially 1 μm and a maximum intensity of essentially 1020 W/cm2.
The apparatus 500 also includes a controller 580 and a computer 560 which manage the translations of the two-axis positioning stage of the sample stage 520 in the plane perpendicular to the laser beam (x- and y-direction). The controller 580 and the computer 560 also control the translation of the objective 540 perpendicular to the plane of the chuck 520 (z-direction) via the one-axis positioning stage 550 to which the objective 540 is fixed. It should be noted that in other implementations of the apparatus 500 the chuck 520 may be equipped with a three-axis positioning system in order to move the optical component 510 or the mask 510 to the target location and the objective 540 may be fixed, or the chuck 520 may be fixed and the objective 540 may be moveable in three dimensions. Although presently not preferred, it is also conceivable to equip both the objective 540 and the chuck 520 with three-axis positioning systems. It should be noted that manual positioning stages can also be used for the movement of the optical component 510 as for example the transmissive mask to the target location of the pulsed laser beam 535 in x-, y- and z-directions and/or the objective 540 may have manual positioning stages for a movement in three dimensions.
Further, the apparatus 500 may also provide a viewing system including a detector 565 as for example a CCD (charge-coupled device) camera which receives light from an illumination source arranged to the chuck 520 (not shown in
The computer 560 may be a microprocessor, a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a CPU (central processing unit), a GPU (graphic processing unit), or the like. It may be arranged in the controller 580, or may be a separate unit such as a PC (personal computer), a workstation, a mainframe, etc. The computer 560 may further comprise I/O (input/output) units like a keyboard, a touchpad, a mouse, a video/graphic display, a printer, etc. Moreover, the computer 560 may comprise one or several connection ports through which it may send a request for experimental data to the control unit 470 of the confocal microscope 400 of
A non-volatile storage of the computer 560 may store a three-dimensional contour of an optical component. The computer 560 may receive experimental raw data from the control unit 470 of the confocal microscope 400. Alternatively, it may receive processed data from the control unit 470. The computing unit of the computer 560 determines from the predetermined 3D contour of the optical component 510 and the data received from the control unit 470 one or several deviations of the measured or existing 3D contour of an optical component from its predetermined 3D contour. It is also possible that the supplier of an optical component provides the deviation of the existing 3D contour from a predetermined contour.
The computer 560 calculates from these data and from algorithms explained in section 6 (“theoretical background”) at least one arrangement of laser pulses which is appropriate to bring the existing 3D contour of the optical component 510 in accordance with its predetermined 3D contour.
The diagram 600 of
The illustrations 700 of
It is a target of the experiments described in the following to verify the concept of the bending of an optical component. Further, it is also a goal to check the 3D deformation model and to demonstrate the benefits of a multi-mode approach for the generation of a 3D arrangement of laser pulses.
The exemplary optical component used in the experiments described in the following is a 6 inch (152 mm) mask blank. Most of the results are also applicable to many other optical components having other shapes which allow the application of 3D arrangements of laser pulses into the volume of the optical components, i.e. optical components which are optically transparent in the near-infrared, the visible, and/or the near-ultraviolet wavelength range.
The application of different 2D arrangements of laser pulses is performed in planes parallel to the mask blank front and rear surface in different depths from the respective surface and using different writing modes, i.e. using 2D arrangements of laser pulses which have different parameters for the laser pulses and/or different pulse densities. The sizes of the 2D arrangements comprise the entire active area of the mask blank. The deformations resulting from the arrangements were measured in an area of 146 mm×146 mm, wherein the measurement grid was about 30×30 nodes.
The confocal microscope 400 used in the application examples described in this section is a Micro Epsilon IFS 3401-10 confocal sensor with a working distance of 10 mm and a resolution in beam direction or in z-direction of 400 nm. The noise of the measurement sensor is around 1000 nm. At every sampling point 100 distance samplings have been added in order to reach a distance sampling repeatability (in z-direction) of about 100 nm. The positioning stage (of Schneeberger) of the objective 440 of
The following application examples demonstrate the result of the application of 3D arrangements of laser pulses which lead to a local expansion of a mask blank. However, this is not a limitation of the inventive method. All results described in this section can also be applied with 3D arrangements of laser pulses resulting in a local contraction of the mask blank. Further, it is also possible to define 3D arrangements of laser pulses which lead to a local compaction in a first area of a mask blank and to an expansion in a second area of the mask blank.
As a first application example a one-dimensional (1D) bending of a mask blank is described. It is obvious that if a 2D arrangement of laser pulses is applied which induces an isotropic expansion in the plane of a mask blank (x-/y-plane), this will induce a bending in the mask blank described above with the same curvature in all directions of the mask blank plane (x-/y-plane). Hence, a 2D arrangement of laser pulses resulting in a locally isotropic expansion does not allow to generate a 1D bending, i.e. for example a defined bending in x-direction and no bending of the mask blank in y-direction. This is a principal or fundamental limitation of an approach using a 2D arrangement of laser pulses which lead to an isotropic expansion in the mask blank plane.
However, apart from the pulse density, the shape of a laser pulse is an efficient parameter to introduce an anisotropic expansion of a mask blank, or generally an optical component.
This assumption is now experimentally proved. 2D arrangements of laser pulses are written in a mask blank close to its upper surface. As indicated in
As the ellipse 820 is not able to visualize all possible expansions of the mask blank, the square indicates an elementary area 810 of the mask blank prior to writing an arrangement of laser pulses in the elementary area 810. The elementary area 810 is a 2D projection of an elementary volume α introduced in section 5.3. As already illustrated with the ellipse 820 an isotropic expansion is introduced in the elementary area 810 by writing a homogeneous 2D arrangement of laser pulses in the mask blank. The deformation of the elementary area 810 is described by eight parameters which are the length and the directions of the arrows 830 at the four corner points of the elementary area 810. Five of the eight parameters are independent, since a rotation of the elementary area 810 around an axis perpendicular to the mask blank surface and translations in the mask blank plane do not change the deformation. The parallelepiped 840 indicates the deformations introduced in the elementary area 810 by a homogeneous 2D arrangement of laser pulses having laser pulses with an essentially a circular beam shape. The square 850 represents a normalized deformation of the elementary area 810 by an ideal isotropic expansion.
Finally, a comparison of
In the next application example it is demonstrated that the defined method can generate a predetermined 3D contour or a predetermined bending profile which has a rotational symmetry even if the initial optical component does not have a rotational symmetry. A mask blank is again used as an initial optical component. The mask blank has again dimensions of 152 mm×152 mm.
In
It is the plan to bend the center portion or the bottom of rear surface of the mask blank according to the selected 3D target contour by using two expansion writing modes in two different 2D arrangements of laser pulses. In order to deform the mask blank in the desired direction, it is necessary to write or to apply the 3D arrangement of laser pulses below the geometrical center of the mask blank. In the discussed example the 3D arrangement of laser pulses is written 250 μm above the bottom surface of the mask blank. This distance from the bottom surface is large enough in order to avoid a damage of the bottom surface.
The 2D arrangements of laser pulses for two selected writing modes are calculated using information on known 2D mode signatures. In the case of using 2D arrangements of laser pulses which are not overlapping, this is a reasonable assumption because the contribution of the 2D arrangements of laser pulses to an expansion in the beam direction or in z-direction is about 0.01 nm per layer of 2D arrangement of laser pulses or per writing layer. This contribution is negligible.
The resulting change of the 3D contour of the bottom surface of the mask blank is depicted in
The measurement data contain a noise magnitude of about 200 nm. Measurements are performed on the initial mask blank prior to the application of the 3D arrangement of laser pulses comprising the writing maps indicated in
Apart from this problem the 3D target contour 1910 and the two measured 3D contours 1810 and 1820 are in good agreement. The target profile 1910 contains a small elevation in the center of rotational symmetry. The bending resulting from the pixel writing cannot have this elevation, as only expanding writing modes are used which are arranged in one side of the mask body. From the presented example it is estimated that curvatures leading to a height variation in the range from about 1 nm to 50 μm can be induced in an optical component by writing one or more 3D arrangements of laser pulses in the volume of the optical component. As in the first example the variation of the surface contour is again below 1 nm.
As it is schematically illustrated in
The next application example presents the generation of an optical component having a predetermined arbitrary shape. This means it is the purpose of the following example to demonstrate the ability to fabricate a 3D target contour which has an arbitrary bending shape by writing one or more 3D arrangements of laser pulses into the optical component. A target is selected with a shape which has curvatures with two different signs in different directions. This specific 3D contour cannot be performed by using a single plane 2D arrangement of laser pulses which predominantly induces an expansion in the plane of the 2D arrangement of laser pulses.
A single 3D contour having curvatures with different signs can be computed from a second order polynom. The following polynom is selected:
F(x,y)=a·x2+b·x·y+c·y2 (61)
wherein the constants are given the numerical values:
a=−1.6·10−10,b=+1.6·10−10,c=+4.0·10−11 (62)
As it is indicated in
The following two paragraphs define some technical terms in detail in order to again emphasize the important point of an anisotropic expansion of an elementary volume or elementary area of an optical component or of a wafer. Only in case of pixel overlapping or in any kind of pixel dubbing or by pixelless writing, it is possible to obtain an anisotropic expansion of an elementary area. In case of a dubbing pair or in a group of two or more overlapping pixels one or more laser pulses are shot to a side of an already existing pixel, and thus resulting in an anisotropic pixel. The entire complex group of overlapping pixels may again be called pixel as it is an element of a global writing process. A group of overlapping or partly overlapping pixels is denoted as writing mode in this application. 2D arrangements of writing modes (or overlapping or anisotropic pixels) are then selected in order to generate a desired expansion profile for an optical component or a wafer.
However, the computation and the given examples are still based on a more specific variant as pixels created by a single laser pulse and having a specific elementary expansion are used as a tool to generate a required deformation. This means that it is a new feature that individual pixels generated by a single laser pulse by their own induce an asymmetric or anisotropic expansion of an elementary volume. A quantitative representation of a single pixel is a writing mode signature, abbreviated as MS for mode signature, which describes the amount of a resulting expansion in case of using pixels of a single type (cf. also section 5.3). One writing mode uniformly processes an area of 1 mm×1 mm.
As can be taken from
On the other hand, the 180° rotational symmetry of the mask blank and the saddle of equation 61 (
It can be seen from
a=−1.69·10−10,b=+1.61·10−10,c=+3.8·10−11 (63)
The agreement of equations 62 and 63 is better than expected in light of the experimental difficulties discussed above for the precise measurement of the generated 3D contour. Typically, a writing density varies the optical transmission in the range of 3% to 5%. In the experiment, the focusing objective 540 is used far from its compensated depth. This may lead to errors in the determination of the writing depth of the writing modes contained in the 3D arrangement of laser pulses. Furthermore, the application examples described here rely on the repeatability of the placement of the mask blank in z-direction. The variation of the mask blank placement in the z-direction is estimated to be approximately 50 μm. Moreover, it is assumed that the variation of the mask blank thickness is also about 50 μm. These factors may add a writing repeatability error of 10% to 15% for each of the writing modes used to form the 3D arrangement of laser pulses. Thus, the generated 3D contour or the induced bending of the mask blank is a result of the combination of the deformations induced by all 2D arrangements of pixels of different modes which lead to a possible bending error of about 20% to 30%.
In the following example, the inventive method is applied to demonstrate its ability to improve the flatness of a surface of an optical component by applying a 3D arrangement of laser pulses in the optical component. A degraded quartz plate or mask blank having a pronounced bending is used in this application example in order to have a reasonable signal to noise ratio. For example, the specification of ASAHI for the flatness of a mask blank defines that a flatness deviation is ≦2 μm and ≦0.5 μm for advanced mask blanks.
Similar to
Further, as it can be clearly seen in
The standard deviation of the 3D contour could be reduced from 1000 nm to 180 nm which results in an improvement of 82%. This means that the initially rejected mask blank (as it does not fulfill the ASAHI specification for regular mask blanks) is brought in the range of the ASAHI specification for advanced mask blanks.
If measurement data of a 3D contour are available having a low noise contribution (expressed for example by its standard deviation) the described method can improve the 3D contour by more than one order of magnitude, and thus bringing an existing 3D contour in close accordance with a predetermined 3D contour.
Wafers
In a second application example the defined method is applied to write one or more three-dimensional (3D) arrangements of laser pulses into a wafer. In a first part of this section, parameters of the laser pulses are estimated which can be used to write pixel in a silicon wafer. Silicon is used in the following example as it is a popular semiconductor material. However, the use of the method defined in this application is not restricted to silicon (Si) wafers. Rather, the method can also be used for wafers which comprise different semiconductor materials, as for example germanium (Ge). Further, it can also be applied to wafers comprising compound semiconductors having two or more semiconducting elements. Examples of binary compound semiconductors are gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), and gallium nitride (GaN), just to name a few.
In the following the term “wafer” is used in the meaning that it comprises the input to a semiconductor manufacturing process, i.e. typically a semiconductor disc and the output of the semiconductor process, i.e. a fabricated component just before it is separated from the wafer. Moreover, the term “wafer” comprises all intermediate stages of the wafer in the semiconductor manufacturing process.
Silicon is transparent for electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength ranges from approximately 1.1 μm to 6.0 μm and silicon and again from approximately 40 μm to 100 μm. The arrow in
In order to locally melt Si it is necessary to locally generate a temperature >1683 K or 1410° C. within a silicon wafer. Once the Si crystal is locally melted, it is likely that the melted volume solidifies as amorphous Si which has a density which is 1.8% lower than that of crystalline Si (see Table 6). Hence, the local amorphous volumes or the pixels require 1.8% more volume than the surrounding crystalline Si and thus induce stress in the Si crystal.
The generation of local volumes in which the melting point is surpassed requires very or ultra-short laser pulse. Only by applying one or more ultra-short laser pulses a heating of a small Si volume can be generated which is fast enough so that the generated heat cannot significantly dissipate in a volume surrounding the focus spot of the laser pulse. The authors P. L. Liu, R. Ren and N, Bloembergen report in the article “Picosecond laser-induced melting and morphology on Si”, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 34, pp. 864-66, 1979 that heating and cooling rates of up to 1014 K/s could be achieved for picosecond pulses. This means that in 1 ps the Si crystal may heat and cool up to 100 K. Therefore, a laser system is needed which can at least generate laser pulses having a pulse duration of less than 1 ps.
In the following laser parameters will be estimated which induce a local melting of a small volume within a Si crystal or Si wafer. It is assumed that a small volume is locally heated in a focus of a laser pulse having a Gaussian beam.
wherein the wavelength λ within the silicon crystal is replaced by the vacuum wavelength or the wavelength in the air λ0 and the refractive index of silicon n. NA denotes the numerical aperture of the optical system used to focus the laser pulses into the cylinder of
As can be seen from
Thus the length b of the cylinder is:
wherein equation (64) is used for the last transformation.
The cylinder with length b and radius w0 has a volume:
The specific heat capacity is given by:
wherein ΔT=1683K-293K=1390K when the heating process starts from room temperature. The energy which is necessary to locally melt a small volume V of the Si crystal
can be estimated from equations (67) and (68):
The energy absorbed within the Gaussian focus, i.e. the length b of the cylinder is approximated by the Lambert-Beer law.
I(z)=I0·e−a·z (70)
wherein a denotes the absorption coefficient of the Si crystal which is represented in
W(b)=W0·e−a·b (71)
wherein W0 is the energy arriving at the Gaussian focus and W(b) is the energy leaving the focus or the cylinder of length b. It is now assumed that the product a·b<1, i.e. only a portion of energy of a laser pulse is absorbed in the cylinder in the Gaussian beam focus so that
ΔW=W0−W(b)=W0(1−e−a·b)≈W0(1−(1−a·b))=W0·a·b (72)
The mean power emitted by the laser system in the pulse train of
wherein PPulse is the pulse power. Thus, the pulse power can be expressed as a function of the mean power of the laser system, its frequency and the pulse width of the individual pulses:
The pulse energy W0 of an incident laser pulse can be expressed using pulse power and the pulse width:
W
0
=P
Pulse
·Δt
Pulse. (75)
It is now assumed that the energy loss of a laser beam as given in equation (72) in the Gaussian focus is absorbed by the Si crystal within the focus:
wherein equation (75) has been used.
Equation (69) describes the power required to increase the temperature within the Gaussian focus at least by the temperature difference ΔT. Equation (76) expresses the energy provided by a laser pulse. Equating equation (69) with equation (76) leads to:
From equation (77) the temperature difference ΔT can be expressed as a function of the mean pulse energy
Further, the required mean power of a laser required to locally melt a Si crystal in the Gaussian focus can be estimated from the required temperature difference ΔT:
In equations (78) and (79) it is indicated that the absorption coefficient of Si strongly depends on the wavelength of the laser system applied to introduce pixels into the Si crystal, as it can be seen from
The HE1060 of
The assessment for the laser parameters given above is only a rough estimation. A more accurate estimation of the laser parameters to write pixels into a Si wafer can be obtained by performing a finite element calculation of how incoming laser pulses propagate through the Si wafer, and in particular how the temperature within the Gaussian focus dynamically changes the optical properties of the Si crystal. For example, as can be seen in
In the following, the bending of a wafer and its correction is discussed. The diagram 4200 of
In the example illustrated in
The magnitude of the bending depends on the wafer, its dimensions and the IC(s) to be fabricated on the wafer. The bending may be in the range of up to 100 μm and may be even larger for unfavorable conditions. The bending effect tends to increase with advanced storage technologies, as for example 3D NAND.
The apparatus 400 of
In the next step, three-dimensional (3D) arrangements of laser pulses are calculated using the measured bending data as input data. This step is described in more detail in the context of the discussion of the apparatus 500 of
Finally, the calculated 3D arrangements of laser pulses are written into the upper part of the wafer 4310 which generates 3D arrangements of pixels in the wafer 4310 which are indicated by the dots 4390. As can be seen from
The parameters of the laser pulses and the 3D arrangements of laser pulses are selected so that the pixels locally induce stress into the Si crystal which reduces the mass density of the wafer 4410 in order to counteract the stress introduced by various processing steps and leading to the bending effect.
It is preferred to introduce the laser pulses through the front surface 4320 of the wafer 4310 as this can be performed with a minimum handling effort of the wafer 4310. In doing so, it has to be taken into account that the processing steps may change, i.e. reduce the band gap of the materials of the ICs 4360, 4370 and 4380 with respect to the pure silicon wafer 4310. This means that it is necessary to select a wavelength for the laser pulses so that the radiation can essentially transmit through the ICs 4360, 4370 and 4380 without any absorption. In an alternative approach, it is also possible to introduce the 3D arrangements of laser pulses through the rear substrate surface 4330. As can be seen from
The further steps of the flow chart of
Finally, the flow chart 4600 of
The manufacturing process begins at block 4605 of
In block 4640, the absorber layer is patterned and the peripheral part of the multilayer structure 255 is removed. Next, in step 4645, the deviation of the flatness caused by the processes of block 4640 is determined. It is of course also possible to determine the flatness variation individually caused by each of the processes of block 4640. At decision block 4645 it is decided if the flatness variation of a deviation of the flatness is smaller than or equal to the predefined threshold. If this condition is fulfilled, the method ends at block 4655. If this is not the case, at step 4660 of
Theoretical Background
In the following, some of the theoretical background is outlined underlying the discussion of different aspects of the inventive method presented in the preceding sections.
In order to generate a predetermined three-dimensional (3D) contour of an optical element or of a wafer different kinds of pixels arranged in different arrangements of pixels are used. The application of different kinds of pixels and different arrangements allows adjusting a measured or a determined 3D contour to a predetermined contour of the optical component and/or the wafer. The term 3D means a variation of lateral dimensions of the optical component or the wafer, i.e. in a plane perpendicular to incident laser pulses, which is defined by an x- and y-direction, as well as in the direction of a laser beam, which is the z-direction. For example, it is possible to introduce pixels of different kinds in the optical component and/or the wafer in order to predominantly cause a lateral variation or to predominantly vary the height of the optical element and/or the wafer. Both the lateral and the variation in z-direction can be performed as local and/or global variations. The terms optical component and optical element are used as synonyms in this application.
In general, as already outlined in the preceding section, pixels introduce stress into an optical element or a wafer by locally changing the density of the optical element material or wafer material. Expanding pixels and contracting pixels can be introduced into the optical element or can be written into the optical element by varying several parameters of the laser beam of the ultra-short laser source, such as the pulse duration and/or the pulse energy, and/or the beam shape, and/or repetition rate. By writing expanding pixels, the density of the optical element material or the wafer material is locally reduced, whereas by writing contracting pixels the density of the optical element material or the wafer material is locally increased.
The writing of pixels into an optical element or a wafer is characterized by two sets of parameters. (a) A first set defines the 3D dimensions of an individual pixel. (b) A second set defines an assembly of individual pixels in a 3D arrangement.
The two parameters sets of a writing mode and a writing mode density or simply writing density are not independent from each other. For example, the effect of smaller pixels can be compensated by increasing the pixel density. Further, it is possible that a pixel arrangement comprises pixels written with a single set of laser beam parameters or with a single writing mode. Moreover, a writing mode can also contain two or more pixels generated with two or more laser beam parameters. Finally, in order to bring a determined 3D contour of an optical element as close as possible to its predetermined 3D contour, two or more pixel arrangements can be introduced in the optical element. The various pixel arrangements can have different positions within the optical element, can partially overlap or can completely overlap.
In order to reliably generate a predetermined 3D contour of an optical element, the effects of ultra-short light pulses having different parameters onto the optical element has to be known. For this purpose, ultra-short light pulses having different parameters and/or writing modes have to be determined for the whole optical element. In order to perform further calculations, the volume of the optical element is partitioned into elementary volumes elements or elementary cells. Although the elementary volumes may be selected arbitrarily, it is preferred to use elementary volumes which have straight lines as edges and planes as faces or lateral surfaces. The corner points of the elementary volumes form 3D grid points across the volume of the optical element. Preferred elementary volumes are parallelepipeds, cuboids or tetrahedrons. Within one elementary volume pixels are written having a single writing mode and writing mode density.
The solution of the direct problem would compute the deformation of the elementary volumes from the action of the laser beam, i.e. it would compute the volume deformations of the elementary volumes as a function of the writing mode or the laser beam parameters and the writing mode density or the writing density. In order to determine the arrangement(s) of laser pulses to be applied, the inverse problem has to be solved. This means, it is the problem to compute a 3D map of writing modes or laser beam parameter and writing mode densities or writing densities that transform a determined 3D contour of an optical element to its predetermined 3D contour.
Optical elements are normally made of very rigid materials. For example, lenses of optical systems and photomasks for photolithographic illumination systems are preferably made of quartz. The deformations necessary for the correction of deviations from a predetermined 3D contour are very small in amplitude and typically do not exceed the elastic limit of the material of the optical element.
Three different groups of equations are important for the following approach: static equations, geometrical equations and physical equations. In static equations, state equilibrium of surface forces, bulk forces and stresses act at any elementary volume of the optical element, as for example, in static Newton's law. It is possible to derive the strain tensor from the displacement field by utilizing Cauchy formulas, which are geometrical equations. Since not every strain field can result from a displacement field, it is necessary to consider compatibility conditions. In thermal equilibrium and in an adiabatic approximation, the generalized Hooke's law (physical equation) states that for an elastic body there is a linear connection between the strain and the stress tensors.
As already mentioned above, without loss of generality, the complete optical element can be described as a system of cuboids, where every cuboid has a constant writing mode and writing mode density. Cuboids can be characterized by a new or modified equilibrium shape having new or modified physical parameters of the optical element such as Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, etc. The changes induced in a cuboid are in good approximation proportional to the writing load, i.e. to the physical parameters of the optical element.
To compute the resulting displacement field as a function of the laser beam parameters and/or of the writing mode (i.e. the direct problem), one of the following two approaches could be used:
Both approaches give a linear dependence of the displacements on the writing mode densities at a given distribution of writing modes. Both approaches allow the computation of the modifications of the elementary volumes induced by the laser beam based on the knowledge of the writing modes and the writing mode densities.
The inverse problem can be formulated in a general case. 3D maps for writing modes have to be found that result in the target variation of the elementary volumes which brings the determined 3D contour of the optical element or the wafer in agreement with its predetermined 3D contour. In general, as defined above, a writing mode is a specific pixel generated by one or several overlapping or partly overlapping laser pulses, wherein the pixels are generated with a discrete parameter set of the laser beam and the problem has to be formulated as an optimization problem. A target functional has to be constructed that has a minimum (or a supremum) at the desired displacement field, which transforms the determined 3D contour of the optical element or the wafer to its predetermined 3D contour. Optimized writing modes or optimized laser beam parameters and writing mode densities produce the displacement field that minimizes the target functional and thus generates the predetermined 3D contour of the optical element or the wafer.
Possible ways to solve the inverse problem, i.e. to compute a 3D map of writing modes that gives the desired predefined 3D contour of an optical element or of a wafer are:
In the following the second approach is used. The following approach is exemplified with elementary cuboids. However, it is not restricted to cuboids, for example tetrahedrons or parallelepipeds can also be used.
The generalized Hooke's law for an optical element or a wafer having a linear elasticity can be presented in a 3D form as:
where the 3D infinitesimal strain tensor ∈(x, y, z) has components ∈ij(x, y, z) and the stress tensor σ(x, y, z) having components σij(x, y, z). The elasticity tensor H(x, y, z) is a 4th-order tensor field.
In order to simplify the following equations, engineering notations will be used for the components of the strain tensor ∈(x, y, z) by defining:
∈0=∈xx,∈1=∈yy,∈2=∈zz,∈3=2·∈xy,∈4=2·∈xz,∈5=2·∈yz
The same is done for the stress tensor σ(x, y, z):
σ0=σxx,σ1=σyy,σ2=σzz,σ3=2·σxy,σ4=2·σxz,σ5=2·σyz
From a transformation point of view, ∈i and σi are no vectors. Using the defined notations Hooke's law for equation 1 can be rewritten in the form:
The fourth order elasticity tensor H(x, y, z) is thus reduced to a second order tensor Hij.
For an isotropic material such as for example quartz lenses or substrates of photomasks, the elasticity tensor has only the two independent components E(x, y, z) and μ(x, y, z), and is of the form:
wherein E(x, y, z) denotes Young's modulus and μ(x, y, z) is Poisson's ratio.
The displacement vector field in an optical element or a wafer induced by the writing of pixels into the optical element or the wafer is a vector field and can be represented as:
In equation 4, Δx(x, y, z) denotes a change of the x-coordinate of a point within the optical element or the wafer with respect to its position prior to the application of laser pulse(s).
The infinitesimal strain tensor field ∈ij can be derived from the displacement vector field {right arrow over (u)}(x, y, z) by using Cauchy formulas. The infinitesimal strain can then be written:
{right arrow over (∈)}(x,y,z)=A{right arrow over (u)}(x,y,z) (5)
where the matrix operator A is constructed from partial derivative elements:
The infinitesimal strain is a second order tensor and only looks like a vector due to the used engineering notation.
As already indicated above, the Lagrange variational principle is used for the determination of the writing modes and the writing mode densities from the potential energy of the optical element or the wafer. The overall potential energy P of a deformation resulting from the introduction of pixels into the optical element or the wafer can be presented in the form of the volume integral of the potential energy density P(x, y, z):
P=∫
V
P(x,y,z)dV (7)
The potential energy density resulting from the stress tensor field σi(x, y, z) caused by a strain tensor field ∈i(x, y, z) is proportional to the integral of the scalar product of the vector components both quantities. The potential energy density P(x, y, z) caused by the stress vector field σi(x, y, z) resulting from the strain vectors field ∈i(x, y, z) is thus given by:
P(x,y,z)=½(σ0∈0+σ1∈1+σ2∈2+σ3∈3+σ4∈4+σ5∈5=½({right arrow over (σ)},{right arrow over (∈)}) (8)
By substituting the strain tensor field σi(x, y, z) using Hooke's law in the form of equation 2 and replacing the strain vector field ∈i(x, y, z) by the displacement field of equation 5, the potential energy distribution or potential energy density has the form:
P(x,y,z)=½(H{right arrow over (∈)},{right arrow over (∈)})=½(H(x,y,z)A{right arrow over (u)}(x,y,z),A{right arrow over (u)}(x,y,z)) (9)
An ideal (but not the only) way to define the displacement vector field {right arrow over (u)}(x, y, z) satisfying the criteria of minimum of potential energy is a finite element like approach. Without loss of generality the overall optical element can be represented as a set of Kx·Ly·Mz elementary volumes. As it facilitates the following calculations, it is preferred that the elementary volumes are parallelepipeds, cuboids or cubes or elementary tetrahedra. Kx is the number of elementary volumes (as for example cuboids) in the x-direction, and Ly and Mz are the numbers of elementary volumes (or for example cuboids) in y- and in z-direction, respectively.
For the following exemplified calculation of the potential energy P, the optical element is split in Kx·Ly·Mz elementary cuboids of identical size. The total potential energy P is the sum of the potential energies Pα of the individual cuboids α.
The potential energy Pα of an elementary volume or an elementary cuboid α is obtained by integrating the potential energy density across the volume Vα of the elementary cuboid α:
P
α=∫V
The potential energy density Pα(x, y, z) is obtained from equation 9:
P
α(x,y,z)=½(HαA{right arrow over (u)}α(x,y,z),A{right arrow over (u)}α(x,y,z)) (12)
The index α counts all the elementary cuboids α into which the optical element is separated. It is assumed that each cuboid or each elementary volume α is so small that the second order tensor field H(x, y, z) of the elasticity tensor can be substituted by a constant tensor Hα within an individual elementary volume or cuboid α.
The diagram 4700 of
By again utilizing the assumption that the elementary cuboids α are small compared to the dimensions of the optical element or the wafer, the vector field {right arrow over (u)}(x, y, z) can be substituted by its linear approximation. For every elementary volume α the vector field {right arrow over (u)}(x, y, z) is represented by a linear interpolation of the displacements of the corner points of the elementary volume.
For this purpose, linear form functions of the corner points Niα with i=0, . . . , 7 are introduced, wherein the index α denotes the elementary volume into which the optical element is separated. In the following, the index g denotes non-perturbed cube corner coordinates Niα or 3D grid nodes, i.e. locations prior to the application of light pulses or laser pulses into the optical element:
The displacements of the coordinates of the corner points caused by writing of pixels into the optical element are defined by:
This approach leads to a good continuous approximation of the real displacement vector field {right arrow over (u)}(x, y, z).
The potential energy Pα of the elementary volume α will be represented as a function of the corner displacements of the cuboid α. By substituting the displacement vector field {right arrow over (u)}(x, y, z) in the cuboid α in equation 12 by the approximation of equation 14, equation 12 within the cuboid α can be rewritten in:
First derivatives of the form functions Niα with respect to Cartesian coordinates x, y, z are given by:
with Nα=1/(8·mxα·myα·mzα), and wherein miα is half of one of the side lengths x, y, or z (i.e. l=(x, y, z)) of the elementary volume α.
Now Cartesian coordinates are introduced for every elementary volume α, wherein the origin of the coordinate system is in the center of the elementary volume α, i.e.:
x
α
=x−(x0gα+x1gα)/2
y
α
=y−(y0gα+y1gα)/2
z
α
=z−(z0gα+z1gα)/2 (19)
Then the partial derivatives of equation 18 are transformed to:
The application of the matrix operator A to the displacement vector field {right arrow over (u)}(x, y, z) results in:
The multiplication of equation 21 with the elasticity tensor H of equation 3 results in equation 22:
Now the following abbreviations are introduced:
Then equations 21 and 22, respectively, are:
With equations 24 and 25 the potential energy density Pα(x, y, z) of the elementary volume α of equation 16 is of the form:
The continuous potential energy density Pα(x, y, z) of the elementary volume α is now approximated by displacements of the corner points pk,lα of the elementary volume α in order to simplify equation 26:
wherein the indices s=(0, 1, 2) and t=(0, 1, 2) are Cartesians coordinates x, y and z. The components of the potential energy matrix Pk,lα have the following matrix form (equation 28):
Every summand in the matrix of equation 28 contains a product of the form NksαNltα. Using equations 23, integrals of these terms along one edge of the cuboid α can be expressed as:
∫−m
∫−m
with
q
kl
=q
kl
x
q
kl
y
q
kl
z (31)
and
q
kl
s=(1+qksqls/3) (32)
Equations 29 to 32 result in an integration of the partial derivatives of the coordinates of the corner points over the volume of an elementary volume α for the case s=t (equation 33):
and for s≠t (equation 34):
It is now assumed that the volume occupied by pixels written in the elementary volume α can be neglected and that the pixels do not significantly affect the rigidity of the optical element or the wafer. Hence, Young's modulus E(x, y, z) and Poisson's ratio μ(x, y, z) do not depend on the location within the elementary volume α. The potential energy distribution after the introduction of pixels in the optical element or the wafer can be presented as a square form over the displacement values of the corner points of the elementary volume α. The integration over the potential energy distribution over the elementary volume α using equations 29 to 34 results in equation 34:
According to the assumption mentioned above, the elements of the potential matrix mks,ltg,α do not depend on the amount and the type of writing pixels in the elementary volume α.
It is now assumed that every elementary volume α alone has a new equilibrium state after pixel(s) have been written in the optical element or the wafer. This assumption is a key statement of the simplified approach presented in this application. Equations 16 and 27 are derived on the supposition that the deformation of the elementary volume α starts from an undisturbed state. The equilibrium coordinates of the corner points of the elementary volume α after the introduction of pixels in the optical element or wafer are called wkiα. From symmetry reasons it is obvious that a change of the potential energy resulting from a deformation from an original or not deformed state of an elementary volume α to the new equilibrium state wkiα expressed by the volume deformation ukiα is opposite to a modification due to a deformation from the new equilibrium state wkiα back to the original or not deformed state.
Due to the fact that every elementary volume α has a new equilibrium shape after writing pixels into the optical element, it is necessary to count the volume deformation of the elementary volume α from the original or not deformed state in the expression for the potential energy. The definition of the deformation from the original or not deformed state to the new equilibrium position, or vice versa, equation 27 of the potential energy density is converted to:
The potential energy of the overall optical element is the sum over all elementary volumes α:
The Lagrange variational principle states that in an equilibrium position of a body its potential energy is minimum. Furthermore, any partial variation over every displacement is equal to zero. This results for equation 36 in a system of linear equations:
δP/δ∈i=0 (37)
For all coordinates of the nodes ∈i. According to equation 12 each internal node coordinate ∈i is presented eight times in the components for all the adjacent nodes. In the following, the nodes are enumerated from left to right (x-direction), then in rows from bottom to top (y-direction) and finally in planes from bottom to top (z-direction). Further, the counting of the coordinates of the corner points of the elementary volumes α is done in a way:
ξ3α+0=u0xα,ξ3α+1=u0yα,ξ3α+2=u0zα (38)
and the following equation is presenting a node identity or a stitching condition. Equation 39:
u
0x
α
=−u
1x
α−1
=u
2x
α−K
=−u
3x
α−K
−1
=u
4x
α−K
·M
=−u
5x
α−K
L
−1
=u
6x
α−K
L
−L
=−u
7x
α−K
L
−K
−1
u
0y
α
=−u
1y
α−1
=u
2y
α−L
=−u
3y
α−L
−1
=u
4y
α−L
M
=−u
5y
α−L
M
−1
=u
6y
α−L
M
−L
=−u
7y
α−L
M
−L
−1
u
0z
α
=−u
1z
α−1
=u
2z
α−M
=−u
3z
α−M
−1
=u
4z
α−M
K
=−u
5z
α−M
K
−1
=u
6z
α−M
K
−M
=−u
7z
α−M
K
−M
−1
Kx, Ly and Mz are the maximum number of elementary volumes α in the optical element in the x-direction (rows), the y-direction (columns) and the z-direction (planes), respectively.
An enumeration matrix Qks,iα is introduced which connects the coordinates of the internal nodes ξi with the displacement of the corner points of the elementary volume α:
Using the enumeration of equation 40, all the components of the linear system of equation 36 can be expressed:
wherein the Pnmg is:
and a part of the potential matrix which is associated with the new cell equilibrium positions Pnltαw is:
Equation 41 is the starting point for the description of all the different aspects of the inventive principle discussed in the preceding section. It is important to note that the determinant of the matrix Pijg is zero due to the invariance of the potential energy of the overall optical element or the wafer versus a rotation and a translational movement. This condition is always automatically fulfilled by adding a condition with respect to the resulting translational movement and the rotation of the optical element or the wafer. This means that it is always possible to calculate the inverse matrix (second order tensor) (Pijg)−1 of the normalized matrix Pijg. Thus, equation 41 allows the computation of the deformations resulting from locally directing the laser beam into a portion of the optical element or a wafer for known equilibrium deformations of the elementary volume α. The relation is expressed by:
ξ=(Pg)−1Pww (44)
In order to link the resulting deformations with the causative laser beam, or to be more precisely with the laser beam parameters and with the writing mode of the laser beam, the resulting volume deformations are expressed in an accurate terminology for the writing mode signature (or the laser beam parameter) and the writing mode density. A uniform writing means that the writing density is constant in each of the x-, y-, and z-direction in the elementary volume α. As already mentioned above, the writing density comprises three linear densities which can individually be modified.
The writing density in the elementary volume α is also called writing mode density aα. A change of the coordinates of the corner points of the elementary volume α for a unity writing density is denoted as eltα. It is now assumed that one single writing mode is used for every elementary volume α of the optical element and only varying the writing density aα. This means that the same laser beam parameters are used for every elementary volume α and that only the writing density or pixel density is modified. Equation 44 can be rewritten in a form:
wherein eltα denotes the 24 displacements of the eight corner points of the elementary volume α.
By performing the summation over l and t and by denoting
equation 45 is of the form:
This equation states that the deformation at the internal node ξi is a linear combination of the writing density aα of every elementary volume α for a fixed writing mode.
Equation 46 supposes that the writing of the laser beam is performed with a fixed writing mode or a fixed set of laser beam parameters and with a fixed writing mode density aα. The deformation property of the writing mode is coded in equilibrium volume deformations elt for unity writing, i.e. for a single writing density aα. Actually the 24 components of the volume deformations at the eight corner points of an elementary volume α are functions of 18 independent ones. Three virtual translations of an elementary volume α of the optical element as well as three rotations of the elementary volume α of the optical element around three independent coordinates do not contribute to the potential energy. Using the 18 independent components, it is possible to construct an orthonormal set of 18 unity vectors ni from the 24 equilibrium volume deformations elt.
wherein
e
j
={e
k
j
},e
k
j=δkj (48)
and where Nij−1=(ni, ej) is a matrix which converts the basis ej to the basis ni. The orthonormal set of unity vectors ni fulfills the following equations:
Projections to this set of unity vectors will be used as a representation of the writing mode which is denoted as a writing mode signature and is abbreviated as MS. The writing mode signature represents a property of the writing tool or of the laser system for a selected type of the writing and for a set of laser beam parameters having a predefined set of physical and geometrical properties. Using the notation of equations 37 to 50 and the equation
equation 45 can be rewritten:
wherein Eoi is:
Equation 52 provides a clear instruction how to determine the mode signature MSi from experimental data: Pixels are written in the optical element having a selected writing mode or a parameter set of the laser beam. Then the resulting displacements ξn are determined. Finally, the inverse matrix of equation 53 is multiplied with the determined displacements ξn. The following equation expresses the last step:
This section provides an explanation of the theoretic concept. Further, it also explains the theory or the concept of the determination of writing mode signatures and the writing densities from experimental data.
However, presently displacements ξn can only be determined with a limited accuracy. This makes the multiplication of the inverse matrix (Eoi)−1 problematic due to zero eigenvalues of the matrix Eoi. Therefore, presently a modified approach for the determination of the writing modes and the writing mode densities is used. This is not a fundamental limitation of the theory presented above, but a temporal experimental restriction.
During the derivation of the concept it has been assumed that the volume deformations introduced in the elementary volume α of the optical element by different writes modes are additive. Thus, different selected writing modes are introduced in an optical element or a wafer and their combined displacements ξn are determined. The resulting displacements or deformations ξn are derived from equation 46 as a summation of the used writing modes m:
where R is the number of different writing modes which are considered in equation 55.
Thus, equation 55 allows the determination of the displacements ξn which results for any set of writing maps or writing densities amα if the mode signature MSi is known for all writing modes.
It is now assumed that a 3D contour of an optical element φjdet. is determined at a set of locations Xj, Yj, Zj, j=1, . . . , L. For example, the 3D contour can be measured at the set of locations. Deviations Δφj of the set of locations from predetermined φjpredet. locations of the optical element can be determined according to:
Δφj=φjpredet.−φjdet. (56)
The deviations Δφj have to be corrected by locally directing a laser beam onto the optical element. In the approximation discussed above the volume deformations introduced in the elementary volume α in the optical element are additive to all deviations Δφj However, the displacements are only known at the nodes ξi of the elementary volumes α of the optical element. Using the assumptions that the deformations inside the elementary volumes α show a linear behavior, a matrix can be generated which transforms the magnitudes of the displacements at the nodes ξi to the magnitude at the desired location ζi of the 3D contour of the optical element. This transformation can be executed by using the equation 40:
Here ζi is the result of a linear interpolation or of a linear combination of computed displacements ξi at locations Xi, Yi, Zi. The matrix Mij has a dimension of L×3·(Kx+1)·(Ly+1)·(Mz+1). Actually this matrix has only 24 diagonal elements because every location is interpolated by using only eight corners points of the elementary volume α as has already been discussed.
Hence, the resulting 3D contour at a selected location i in the optical element or the wafer after the application of ultra-short laser pulses is:
Δφi+ζi (58)
In order to bring the determined locations φjdet. of the optical element or the wafer in accordance with the predetermined locations φjpredet., the parameters of the writing mode(s) are selected and the writing mode density/densities in the elementary volume α are identified which minimize the target functional Φ, i.e. it has to be solved:
min{Φ(Δφ+ζ)} (59)
In order to minimize the target functional Φ the displacements ζi are varied in order to bring the determining 3D contour φidet in accordance with the predetermined 3D contour φipredet of the optical element.
From a computational point of view, it is convenient to select the target functional as a mean square of the residual displacements which transforms equation 59 to:
A Tikhonov regularization has been added to the target functional (last term in equation 60) to make sure that the result will define a physically reasonable solution. The regularization coefficients λ have to be selected to be small enough, so that they do not to introduce a significant change to the solution.
This application is a continuation of PCT/EP2015/056250, filed on Mar. 24, 2015, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application 61/970,289, filed on Mar. 25, 2014. The contents of the above applications are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61970289 | Mar 2014 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/EP2015/056250 | Mar 2015 | US |
| Child | 15272936 | US |
