Automatic inspection of a residual resist layer by means of self-organizing map

Zaki Sabit Fawzi Philippe (1) , Stéphane Robert (1) , Bernard Bayard (1)

1 LHC - Laboratoire Hubert Curien

Photolithography allows large-scale fabrication of nanocomponents in the semiconductor industry. This technique consists of manufacturing a desired pattern on a photoresist film transferred onto the substrate during the etching process. Therefore, the mask quality is essential for reliable etching. For example, the presence of a residual layer of resist might be considered as a mask defect and can lead to the failure of the etching process. We propose the use of a Kohonen self-organizing map for automatic detection of a residual layer from an ellipsometric signature. The feasibility of the suggested inspection by the use of a classification technique is discussed and simulations are carried out on a 750-nm period grating.

Keywords: optical inspection; pattern recognition; neural networks; nondestructive testing; ellipsometry; metrology

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]; Micro and nanotechnologies/Microelectronics

Zaki Sabit Fawzi Philippe, Stéphane Robert, Bernard Bayard. Automatic inspection of a residual resist layer by means of self-organizing map. Optical Engineering, 2016, 55 (5), ⟨10.1117/1.OE.55.5.054106⟩. ⟨ujm-01385446⟩