Inspection of Directed Self-Assembly Defects

摘要

Directed Self-Assembly (DSA) is considered as a potential patterning solution for future generation devices. One of the most critical challenges for translating DSA into high volume manufacturing is to achieve low defect density in the DSA patterning process. The defect inspection capability is fundamental to defect reduction in any process, particularly the DSA process, as it provides engineers with information on the numbers and types of defects. While the challenges of other candidates of new generation lithography are well known (for example, smaller size, noise level due to LER etc.), the DSA process causes certain defects that are unique. These defects are nearly planar and in a material which produces very little defect scattering signal. These defects, termed as "dislocation" and "disclination" have unique shapes and have very little material contrast. While large clusters of these unique defects are easy to detect, single dislocation and disclination defects offer considerable challenge during inspection. In this investigation, etching the DSA pattern into a silicon (Si) substrate structure to enhance defect signal and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) is studied. We used a Rigorous Coupled-Wave Analysis (RCWA) method for solving Maxwell's equations to simulate the DSA unique defects and calculate inspection parameters. Controllable inspection parameters include various illumination and collection apertures, wavelength band, polarization, noise filtering, focus, pixel size, and signal processing. From the RCWA simulation, we compared SNR between "Post-SiN etch" and "Post-SiN+Si-substrate etch" steps. The study is also extended to investigate wafer-level data at post etch inspection. Both the simulations and inspection tool results showed dramatic signal and SNR improvements when the pattern was etched into the SiN+Si substrate allowing capture of DSA unique defect types.