Advanced proximity matching with Pattern Matcher

Abstract:
In a semiconductor factory, each lithographic scanner is combined with a laser source and a track to form a lithocell. Quite frequently, lithographers have to deal with running the same lithographic process on multiple lithocells. Usually a new process is developed for one cell, and then transferred to other cells. However, small but non-negligible differences between lithocells, may result in yield losses. Nevertheless, several scanner’s parameters (called proximity manipulators) can be used to compensate for these differences and match the secondary lithocells to the reference one. Recently a new advanced process matching methodology called Pattern Matcher has been developed. Using this method, we performed successful proximity matching of several ArF scanners in the production environment. In this paper, we discuss the principles of Pattern Matcher approach as well as methodology for data acquisition and present results of our matching.