Synopsys, Inc.

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Difrotec Oü

Vtt-Ntm Ou

Nikolay Voznesenskiy

Mariia Voznesenskaia

Tatiana Voznesenskaia

Jie Yu

Qiliang Yan

Hongbo Zhang

Wenlong Zhang

Dongmei Ma

Chunshui Jin

Haitao Zhang

Ebo Kwabena Gyan Croffie

Ralf Juengling

The present invention is related with the two-channel point-diffraction interferometer for testing the optical systems or optical elements. The two-channel point-diffraction interferometer comprising a laser source inducing a linearly polarized laser beam which is divided by a beam splitter to a working channel and to a reference channel whereas the one half of light as working channel is directed from the first collimator to the working collimator by a first single-mode optical fiber to keep polarization of light unchanged, and another half of light as reference channel is directed from the second collimator to the reference collimator by a second single-mode optical fiber to keep polarization of light unchanged.

Two-channel point-diffraction interferometer

A coupled-domains method for generating disturbance matrices used in correcting topography proximity effects (TPE) for integrated circuit (IC) designs that include inhomogeneous substrates. The IC design is modeled and divided into domains (z-direction regions), each domain defined by upper/lower horizontal domain boundaries and optical properties generated by its associated geometry and material composition. Fourier-space representations are utilized to determine discrete electrical and magnetic field components for each domain that are integrated to derive domain transfer matrices, which are then multiplied to produce a total transfer matrix, which is then used to generate the disturbance matrix. The disturbance matrix may then be utilized by a model-based mask correction tool to calculate light intensity values in the photoresist layer. The corrected mask design is then used to generate a physical mask utilized in the subsequent fabrication of an IC device based on the IC design.

Coupled-domains disturbance matrix generation for fast simulation of wafer topography proximity effects

A diffraction interferometer includes a reference light passage, a test light passage and a pinhole substrate. The pinhole substrate includes a test pinhole and a reference pinhole. The diffracted wavefront emitted from the test pinhole is reflected by the optical component to be tested adjacent to the pinhole substrate and a converge adjacent to the reference pinhole. The diffracted wavefront includes surface shape information of an optical component to be tested that is reflected by the pinhole substrate. Interference with the diffracted wavefront is emitted by the reference pinhole and forms interference fringes. The large numerical aperture phase-shifting dual pinhole diffraction interferometer adopts a dual pinhole substrate and a illumination manner with two converged light paths to enable the separation of the reference light and test light, to prevent disturbance between the two light paths, which would induce the change of interferogram status during phase-shifting.

Large numerical aperture phase-shifting dual pinhole diffraction interferometer and its test method

A method for correcting topography proximity effects (TPE) for an integrated circuit (IC) design is described. This method includes dividing the IC design into a plurality of levels (z-direction). Each level can be decomposed into one or more elementary geometries. These elementary geometries can be top view geometries, cross-sectional geometries, half-plane geometries, geometries with single slope sides, and/or geometries with multiple slope sides. The one or more elementary geometries can be compared to primitives in a library. A transfer matrix can be generated using the matching primitives and the elementary geometries. A disturbance matrix can be calculated based on the transfer matrix. This disturbance matrix can advantageously capture a spectrum of a reflective electric field from a spectrum of an incident electric field. Wave propagation through a photoresist layer can be performed using the disturbance matrix for the plurality of levels. A light intensity for TPE correction can be computed based on the wave propagation.

Compact and accurate wafer topography proximity effect modeling for full chip simulation

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Tartu, Estonia

Nikolay Voznesenskiy