Monte-Carlo Based Optical Proximity Correction For The Half-Tone Phase Shift Mask

In this work, we extended the algorithm to PSM. We show the detailed algorithm of our program and several solutions for the OPC of half-tone PSM. One example of our results is shown in Fig. 1. The test pattern is the simple contact hole pattern whose size is 0.4 X 0.4 (λ/NA)^2. The aerial image for the binary mask is shown in Fig. 1 (a). Fig. 1 (b) shows the aerial image for the half-tone PSM whose transmittance is 9%. Fig. 1 (c) of the solution after OPC for the half-tone PSM shows dramatic enhancement of aerial image quality. Fig. 1 (d) shows the abstraction of the solution of (c) to enhancing the mask manufacturabilty. In this figure, we can find that the aerial image quality is a little degraded comparing with that of (c).