METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MEASURING A STRUCTURE ON A SUBSTRATE, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR IMPLEMENTING SUCH METHODS & APPARATUS.

    公开(公告)号:NL2006700A

    公开(公告)日:2011-12-06

    申请号:NL2006700

    申请日:2011-05-02

    Abstract: Diffraction models and scatterometry are used to reconstruct a model of a microscopic structure on a substrate. A plurality of candidate structures are defined, each represented by a plurality of parameters (p1, p2, etc.)). A plurality of model diffraction signals are calculated by simulating illumination of each of the candidate structures. The structure is reconstructed by fitting one or more of the model diffraction signals to a signal detected from the structure. In the generation of the candidate structures, a model recipe is used in which parameters are designated as either fixed or variable. Among the variable parameters, certain parameters are constrained to vary together in accordance with certain constraints, such as linear constraints. An optimized set of constraints, and therefore an optimized model recipe, is determined by reference to a user input designating one or more parameters of interest for a measurement, and by simulating the reconstruction process reconstruction. The optimized model recipe can be determined automatically by a parameter advisor process that simulates reconstruction of a set of reference structures, using a plurality of candidate model recipes. In the generation of the reference structures, restrictions can be applied to exclude unrealistic parameter combinations.

    METHOD, INSPECTION APPARATUS AND SUBSTRATE FOR DETERMINING AN APPROXIMATE STRUCTURE OF AN OBJECT ON A SUBSTRATE.

    公开(公告)号:NL2005346A

    公开(公告)日:2011-04-13

    申请号:NL2005346

    申请日:2010-09-13

    Abstract: A system and method determine an approximate structure of an object on a substrate. This may be applied in model based metrology of microscopic structures to assess critical dimension or overlay performance of a lithographic apparatus. A scatterometer is used to determine approximate structure of an object, such as a grating on a stack, on a substrate. The wafer substrate has an upper layer and an underlying layer. The substrate has a first scatterometry target region, including the grating on a stack object. The grating on a stack is made up of the upper and underlying layers. The upper layer is patterned with a periodic grating. The substrate further has a neighboring second scatterometry target region, where the upper layer is absent. The second region has just the unpatterned underlying layers.

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