Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.

Kei Mesuda

Nobuhito Toyama

Yasutaka Morikawa

The work load spent on designing a trench-type, Levenson-type phase shift mask is lightened and the working time for the designing process is shortened. A pattern, having a plurality of apertures, is designed by means of a designing tool. In a databaseare prepared optimal functions that indicate optimal combinations of undercut amounts Uc and bias correction amount &#x3b4; according to each set of dimension conditions. An optimal function extraction toolextracts optimal functions Fp and Fs that are matched with dimension conditions Mp and Ms on pattern, and determining tooldetermines optimal values of the undercut amount Uc and the bias correction amount &#x3b4; based on the extracted optimal function. A three-dimensional structure determining tooldetermines a three-dimensional structural body, having a depth d and the undercut amount Uc, for an aperture by which the phase of transmitted light is shifted by 180 degrees. Pattern correction tooluses the bias correction amount &#x3b4; to perform correction of the width of an aperture on patternand thereby provides a corrected pattern

Designing method and device for phase shift mask

A planar pattern (), having a plurality of apertures of the same size (Wx&#xd7;Wy), is determined by a two-dimensional layout determination tool (), and a three-dimensional structure, having a depth d and an undercut amount Uc for making the phase of the transmitted light be shifted by 180 degrees with every even-numbered aperture, is determined by a three-dimensional structure determination tool (). Simulation of transmitted light is executed for a structural body having the planar pattern () and the three-dimensional structure () by a three-dimensional simulator () to determine the light intensity deviation D of transmitted light for an odd-numbered aperture without a trench and an even-numbered aperture with a trench. At a two-dimensional simulator (), simulations using a two-dimensional model prepared based on this deviation D are performed to determine a correction amount &#x3b4; for making the deviation D zero and obtain a new planar pattern (). The work load spent on designing a trench-type, Levenson-type phase shift mask can be lightened and the working time for the designing process can be shortened.

The work load spent on designing a trench-type, Levenson-type phase shift mask is lightened and the working time for the designing process is shortened. A pattern, having a plurality of apertures, is designed by means of a designing tool. In a databaseare prepared optimal functions that indicate optimal combinations of undercut amounts Uc and bias correction amounts &#x3b4; according to each set of dimension conditions. An optimal function extraction toolextracts optimal functions Fp and Fs that are matched with dimension conditions Mp and Ms on pattern 11, and determining tooldetermines optimal values of the undercut amount Uc and the bias correction amount &#x3b4; based on the extracted optimal function. A three-dimensional structure determining tooldetermines a three-dimensional structural body, having a depth d and the undercut amount Uc, for an aperture by which the phase of transmitted light is shifted by 180 degrees. Pattern correction tooluses the bias correction amount &#x3b4; to perform correction of the width of an aperture on patternand thereby provides a corrected pattern

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Kei Mesuda