International Business Machines Corporation

Infineon Technologies Ag

Infineon Technologies North America Corp.

Juergen Preuninger

Lars W Liebmann

John Kenneth DeBrosse

Gerhard Kunkel

Shahid Ahmad Butt

Scott Josef Bukofsky

Alan C Thomas

Daniel J Nickel

Marco Hug

A phase shift mask shape that reduces line-end shortening at the critical feature without changing layout size increases required of requisite phase shift rules. The phase feature is given an angled extension, which includes the lithographic shortening value. This allows the critical shape to be designed much closer to the reference layer then it could without the angled extension feature. Phase mask extension features beyond a given device segment are significantly reduced by lengthening the feature along an uncritical portion; moving the feature reference point to the device layer; and flattening the phase extension feature into an L-shape or T-shape along the uncritical parts of a device segment. Applying these design rules allows a draw of the gate conductor under current conditions and puts phase shapes inside without extending the gate conductor dimensions to the next feature.

Layout impact reduction with angled phase shapes

A projected image is formed during a material substrate. A photolithographic mask is illuminated with substantially coherent light at an oblique angle of incidence with respect to a surface of the photolithographic mask. The photolithographic mask includes a substantially transparent mask substrate and one or more lines and spaces patterns formed on the mask substrate and having a periodicity P. The mask substrate includes at least one phase shifting region. At least part of the light that is transmitted through the photolithographic mask is collected using one or more projection lenses which project the portion of the transmitted light onto the material substrate. The material substrate is disposed substantially parallel with, but at a distance from, a focal plane of the projection lens system. The phase shifting region of the mask substrate and the distance from the focal plane are selected such that a substantially focused image is projected onto the material substrate that includes the lines and spaces patterned but with a periodicity P/2.

Method of reducing pitch on semiconductor wafer

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Munich, Germany

Juergen Preuninger