Line-profile and critical-dimension monitoring using a normal incidence optical CD metrology

As lithographic technology drives the minimum integrated circuit feature size toward 0.1 mum and below, process tolerances for critical-dimension profile excursion are becoming increasingly demanding. In response, optical critical dimension metrology (OCD), an optical-wavelength light-diffraction technique, is emerging as a fast, accurate, and nondestructive sub-100-nm linewidth and profile monitor. As such, a detailed understanding of the correlation between OCD and existing metrology tools is required. Correlation between CD measurements using OCD and CD-scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques is investigated by measuring two types of important structures, e.g., photoresist gratings on a polysilicon gate film stack and shallow trench isolation. Intragrating CD variation is shown to account for scatter in the correlation plot. A qualitative line-profile correlation between cross-section SEM (X-SEM) and OCD is presented for photoresist gratings in a focus exposure matrix. Finally, a summary of the capability of OCD as a monitor for various processing stages is presented.