In this paper, variability in the photolithography pattern transfer process is analyzed by means of a large number of CD measurements spread across the stepper field and across the wafer. The variability is found to be highly systematic in nature, and methods are developed to extract the parameters of this systematic variation. Knowledge of the structure of the systematic variance allows for the selection of an optimum sampling plan to best capture the variance in future measurements of wafers from the same process.
This paper introduces a compact but rigorous theoretical formulation of the mask error factor. The results compare favorably to experimental data as well as to first-principle simulations. This work provides an insight into the MEF causes, and it explores its dependency on process settings in order to control critical dimension (CD) variation.
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