Boundary integral spectral element method analyses of extreme ultraviolet multilayer defects

Area of Science:

• Semiconductor Manufacturing
• Computational Physics
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is crucial for advanced semiconductor patterning.
• Mask defects causing multilayer distortion pose significant challenges in EUV lithography.
• Accurate and efficient simulation of nanoscale defect impacts is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel computational method for simulating defected nanoscale structures in EUV lithography.
• To enhance the accuracy and efficiency of simulating multilayer distortion.
• To address limitations of conventional methods in handling complex 3D EUV lithography scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Development of a Boundary Integral Spectral Element Method (BI-SEM).
• Integration of the Spectral Element Method (SEM) for interior domains.
• Application of surface integral equations to truncate open boundaries.
• Simulation of both 2D and 3D EUV lithography cases.

Main Results:

• BI-SEM significantly reduces memory cost and computation time compared to the Finite Element Method (FEM).
• For 2D problems, BI-SEM shows 11x memory and 1.25x CPU time efficiency over FEM.
• For 3D problems, BI-SEM demonstrates over 14x memory and 2x CPU time efficiency.
• BI-SEM successfully simulates complex 3D problems intractable for conventional FEM.

Conclusions:

• The BI-SEM offers a highly accurate and efficient solution for simulating defect impacts in EUV lithography.
• This method overcomes computational limitations of traditional approaches for complex 3D simulations.
• BI-SEM is a promising tool for advancing EUV lithography mask defect analysis and mitigation.