Fast model-based optical proximity correction

US7079223B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Alan E. Rosenbluth · Yorktown Heights, US
• Gregg M. Gallatin · Newtown, US
• Ronald Gordon · Poughkeepsie, US
• Nakgeuon Seong · Wappingers Falls, US
• Alexey Y. Lvov · Congers, US
• William D. Hinsberg · Fremont, US
• John A. Hoffnagle · San Jose, US
• Frances Anne Houle · Fremont, US
• Martha I. Sanchez · Menlo Park, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 20, 2004
• Grant date: Jul 18, 2006
• Expiry date: Aug 6, 2024

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G03F1/36
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A method and system is provided for computing lithographic images that may take into account non-scalar effects such as lens birefringence, resist stack effects, tailored source polarizations, and blur effects of the mask and the resist. A generalized bilinear kernel is formed, which is independent of the mask transmission function, and which may then be treated using a decomposition to allow rapid computation of an image that includes such non-scalar effects. Weighted pre-images may be formed from a coherent sum of pre-computed convolutions of the dominant eigenfunctions of the generalized bilinear kernel with the appropriate mask polygon sectors. The image at a point may be formed from the incoherent sum of the weighted pre-images over all of the dominant eigenfunctions of the generalized bilinear kernel. The resulting image can then be used to perform model-based optical proximity correction (MBOPC).