Asml Netherlands B.v.

Richard Quintanilha

Markus Gerardus Martinus Maria Van Kraaij

Arie Jeffrey Den Boef

Vadim Yevgenyevich Banine

Coen Adrianus Verschuren

Willem Marie Julia Marcel Coene

Maxim Pisarenco

Alexey Olegovich Polyakov

Nitish Kumar

Martin Jacobus Johan Jak

Scott Anderson Middlebrooks

Michael Kubis

Sander Bas Roobol

Adrianus Cornelis Matheus Koopman

Albertus Victor Gerardus Mangnus

Konstantin Tsigutkin

Serhiy Danylyuk

A method of inspection for defects on a substrate, such as a reflective reticle substrate, and associated apparatuses. The method includes performing the inspection using inspection radiation obtained from a high harmonic generation source and having one or more wavelengths within a wavelength range of between 20 nm and 150 nm. Also, a method including performing a coarse inspection using first inspection radiation having one or more first wavelengths within a first wavelength range; and performing a fine inspection using second inspection radiation having one or more second wavelengths within a second wavelength range, the second wavelength range comprising wavelengths shorter than the first wavelength range.

Inspection apparatus and inspection method

A method of determining a measurement sequence for an inspection tool inspecting a structure generated by a lithographic process performed by a lithographic system is presented, the method including deriving a model for the lithographic process as performed by the lithographic system, the model including a relationship between a set of system variables describing the lithographic system and an output variable representing the structure resulting of the lithographic process, determining an observability of one or more system variables in the output variable, and determining the measurement sequence for the inspection tool, based on the observability.

Inspection tool, inspection method and computer program product

A method of calculating electromagnetic scattering properties of a structure represented as a nominal structure and a structural perturbation, has the steps:numerically solving a volume integral equation comprising a nominal linear systemto determine a nominal vector field being independent with respect to the structural perturbation;using a perturbed linear systemto determine an approximation of a vector field perturbation arising from the structural perturbation, by solving a volume integral equation or an adjoint linear system. Matrix-vector multiplication of a nominal linear system matrix convolution operator may be restricted to sub-matrices; andcalculating electromagnetic scattering properties of the structure using the determined nominal vector field and the determined approximation of the vector field perturbation.

Methods and apparatus for calculating electromagnetic scattering properties of a structure

A detector for detecting diffracted radiation which has been diffracted by a regular structure; said detector comprises: a sensor for sensing at least a portion of said diffracted radiation, said sensor having a first region and a second region; a first coating configured to allow transmission of radiation with wavelengths within a first range of wavelengths; and a second coating configured to allow transmission of radiation with wavelengths within a second range of wavelengths; wherein said first coating coats said first region of said sensor, and said second coating coats said second region of said sensor, and wherein said first and second regions are different regions.

Optical detector

A method of determining an edge roughness parameter has the steps: () controlling a radiation system to provide a spot of radiation at a measurement position for receiving a substrate; () receiving a measurement signal from a sensor for measuring intensity of a forbidden diffraction order (such as a second order) being diffracted by a metrology target at the measurement position when the metrology target is illuminated by the spot of radiation, the metrology target comprising a repetitive pattern being configured by configuration of a linewidth/pitch ratio (of about 0.5) to control an amount of destructive interference that leads to forbidding of the diffraction order, the sensor being configured to provide the measurement signal based on the measured intensity; and () determining an edge roughness parameter based on the measured intensity of the forbidden diffraction order.

Determining edge roughness parameters

A target structure (T) made by lithography or used in lithography is inspected by irradiating the structure at least a first time with EUV radiation () generated by inverse Compton scattering. Radiation () scattered by the target structure in reflection or transmission is detected () and properties of the target structure are calculated by a processor () based on the detected scattered radiation. The radiation may have a first wavelength in the EUV range of 0.1 nm to 125 nm. Using the same source and controlling an electron energy, the structure may be irradiated multiple times with different wavelengths within the EUV range, and/or with shorter (x-ray) wavelengths and/or with longer (UV, visible) wavelengths. By rapid switching of electron energy in the inverse Compton scattering source, irradiation at different wavelengths can be performed several times per second.

Metrology methods, radiation source, metrology apparatus and device manufacturing method

A metrology apparatus uses radiation () in an EUV waveband. A first detection system () includes a spectroscopic grating () and a detector () for capturing a spectrum of the EUV radiation after interaction with a target (T). Properties of the target are measured by analyzing the spectrum. The radiation () further includes radiation in other wavebands such as VUV, DUV, UV, visible and IR. A second detection system () is arranged to receive at least a portion of radiation () reflected by the first spectroscopic grating and to capture a spectrum (SA) in one or more of said other wavebands. The second waveband spectrum can be used to enhance accuracy of the measurement based on the EUV spectrum, and/or it can be used for a different measurement. Other types of detection, such as polarization can be used instead or in addition to spectroscopic gratings.

Metrology methods, metrology apparatus and device manufacturing method

A pattern is applied to a substrate by a lithographic apparatus as part of a lithographic manufacturing system. Structures are produced with feature sizes less than 10 nm. A target includes one or more gratings with a direction of periodicity. A detector captures one or more diffraction spectra, to implement small angle X-ray scattering metrology. One or more properties, such as linewidth (CD), are calculated from the captured spectra for example by reconstruction. The irradiation direction defines a non-zero polar angle relative to a direction normal to the substrate and defines a non-zero azimuthal angle relative to the direction of periodicity, when projected onto a plane of the substrate. By selecting a suitable azimuthal angle, the diffraction efficiency of the target can be enhanced by a large factor. This allows measurement time to be reduced significantly compared with known techniques.

Metrology method, metrology apparatus and device manufacturing method

A structure of interest is irradiated with radiation for example in the x-ray or EUV waveband, and scattered radiation is detected by a detector (). A processor () calculates a property such as linewidth (CD) by simulating interaction of radiation with a structure and comparing the simulated interaction with the detected radiation. A layered structure model () is used to represent the structure in a numerical method. The structure model defines for each layer of the structure a homogeneous background permittivity and for at least one layer a non-homogeneous contrast permittivity. The method uses Maxwell's equation in Born approximation, whereby a product of the contrast permittivity and the total field is approximated by a product of the contrast permittivity and the background field. A computation complexity is reduced by several orders of magnitude compared with known methods.

Methods and apparatus for simulating interaction of radiation with structures, metrology methods and apparatus, device manufacturing method

Hybrid metrology apparatus () measures a structure (T) manufactured by lithography. An EUV metrology apparatus (, IL/DET) irradiates the structure with EUV radiation and detects a first spectrum from the structure. Another metrology apparatus (, IL/DET) irradiates the structure with second radiation comprising EUV radiation or longer-wavelength radiation and detects a second spectrum. Using the detected first spectrum and the detected second spectrum together, a processor (MPU) determines a property (CD/OV) of the structure. The spectra can be combined in various ways. For example, the first detected spectrum can be used to control one or more parameters of illumination and/or detection used to capture the second spectrum, or vice versa. The first spectrum can be used to distinguish properties of different layers (T, T) in the structure. First and second radiation sources (SRC, SRC) may share a common drive laser (LAS).

A lithographic manufacturing system produces periodic structures with feature sizes less than 10 nm and a direction of periodicity (D). A beam of radiation () having a range of wavelengths in the EUV spectrum (1-100 nm or 1-150 nm) is focused into a spot (S) of around 5 &#x3bc;m diameter. Reflected radiation () is broken into a spectrum () which is captured () to obtain a target spectrum signal (ST). A reference spectrum is detected () to obtain a reference spectrum signal (SR). Optionally a detector () is provided to obtain a further spectrum signal (SF) using radiation diffracted at first order by the grating structure of the target. The angle of incidence (&#x3b1;) and azimuthal angle (&#x3c6;) are adjustable. The signals (ST, SR, SF) obtained at one or more angles are used to calculate measured properties of the target, for example CD and overlay.

A scatterometer is used to measure a property of structures on a substrate. A target grating comprises lines arranged periodically over an distance gin a first direction, each line individually extending a distance gL in a second direction. The grating is illuminated with a spot of radiation and diffracted radiation is detected and used to calculate a measurement of CD, side wall angle and the like. The spot defines a field of view customized to the grating such that an extent fof the spot in said first direction is greater than distance gwhile an extent fof the spot in said second direction is less than distance g- The grating may be smaller than conventional gratings. The calculation can be simplified and made more robust, using a mathematical model that assumes that the grating is finite in the first direction but infinite in the second direction.

Inspection apparatus and methods, lithographic system and device manufacturing method

A pattern from a patterning device is applied to a substrate by a lithographic apparatus. The applied pattern includes product features and metrology targets. The metrology targets include large targets which are for measuring overlay using X-ray scattering and small targets which are for measuring overlay by diffraction of visible radiation. Some of the smaller targets are distributed at locations between the larger targets, while other small targets are placed at the same locations as a large target. By comparing values measured using a small target and large target at the same location, parameter values measured using all the small targets can be corrected for better accuracy. The large targets can be located primarily within scribe lanes while the small targets are distributed within product areas.

Substrate and patterning device for use in metrology, metrology method and device manufacturing method

The present invention determines property of a target () on a substrate (W), such as a grating on a wafer. An inspection apparatus has an illumination source () with two or more illumination beams () in the pupil plane of a high numerical aperture objective lens (L). The substrate and target are illuminated via the objective lens from different angles of incidence with respect to the plane of the substrate. In the case of four illumination beams, a quad wedge optical device (QW) is used to separately redirect diffraction orders of radiation scattered from the substrate and separates diffraction orders from the two or more illumination beams. For example four 0diffraction orders are separated for four incident directions. After capture in multimode fibers (MF), spectrometers (S-S) are used to measure the intensity of the separately redirected 0diffraction orders as a function of wavelength. This may then be used in determining a property of a target.

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Richard Quintanilha