Fast method to model photoresist images using focus blur and resist blur

Abstract

A method for determining an image of a patterned object formed by a polychromatic lithographic projection system having a laser radiation source of a finite spectral bandwidth and a lens for imaging the patterned object to an image plane within a resist layer. The method comprises providing patterns for the object, a spectrum of the radiation source to be used in the lithographic projection system, an intensity and polarization distribution of the radiation source, and a lens impulse response in the spatial domain or in the spatial frequency domain of the image. The method then includes forming a polychromatic 4D bilinear vector kernel comprising a partially coherent polychromatic joint response between pairs of points in the spatial domain or in the spatial frequency domain, determining the dominant polychromatic 2D kernels of the polychromatic 4D bilinear vector kernel, and determining the image of the patterned object from convolutions of the object patterns with the dominant polychromatic 2D kernels.