Ver. 2022.01.

18
Proposal of Plane-Parallel Resonator Configuration for High-NA EUV Lithography

Tsumoru Shintake
Okinawa Institute of Science & Technology Graduate University OIST,

1919-1 Tancha, Onna, Okinawa, Japan 904-0495

[email protected]

Plane-parallel resonator configuration is proposed for high-NA EUV lithography, where the
lithography mask and the wafer are parallelly arranged through two focusing mirrors. EUV light is
injected through an off-axis rotating mirror at the back focal plane and provides off-axis illumination
(precession beam) to the mask and bounces back twice (at the mask and the wafer), finally goes out
from the resonator through the rotating mirror. This is a single path cavity, there is no resonant effect.
The orbital error or vibration of the rotating mirror do not affect on the imaging quality. The off-axis
illumination is essential for high-NA optics, which recovers the high spatial frequency, and improves
the edge contrast. The matched annular-aperture is located at the back-focal plane of the projector
mirror, which acts as Fourier filter passing only the horizontally scattered waves reflected by the
density modulations F(kx, k y,0) : 0-th z-order Fourier component of the mask. During single
precession of the beam, this system creates 2D image of the normally projected density map of the
mask pattern onto the wafer, where the longitudinal variation (3D effect) disappears, and thus the
mask-shadowing problem is moderated. The depth-of-focus (DOF) is long, and also the image contrast
becomes very high. As the objective mirror, Schwarzschild objective or Wolter telescope will be a
suitable candidate. Wolter telescope is axisymmetric and lighter than conventional solid concave
mirror, therefore, a larger diameter can be fabricated in high precession. By optimizing Wolter
telescope, it may be possible to cover the wafer field size 26 mm x 33 mm of single patterning.
Example parameter design was performed, NA(sin θ ) = 0.7 seems technically feasible. If we
remove the rotating mirror, the system becomes a resonator cavity, which will provide sensitive tool
to verify errors in optical components and day-by-day corrections of mechanical alignments and also
detecting mask defect.

Keyword: EUV lithography, off axis illumination, precession beam, High-NA

1. Introduction
The precession method was developed in X-ray crystallography by Prof. Martin J. Buerger at
the beginning of the 1940's as a very effective method to collect diffracted intensities without
distorting the geometry of the reciprocal planes[1]. By rotating the crystal along X-ray
axis(precession motion) and using annular aperture (slit) corresponding to intersection of
Ewald's sphere and 0-th order plane, Bragg diffractions were collected. Recorded film showed
the reciprocal planes without any distortion, thus it was used to determine the space group
and unit cell dimensions, easily. The X-ray film acts as mathematical integrator summing up
all diffractions during the rotation. Based on this concept, HUBER Buerger Precession
Goniometer has been developed and widely used to analyze crystal structure, including
protein crystals.
The same concept was realized in the electron microscope[2], where the electron beam
rotates (precession motion) and illuminates on a stationary staying crystal. The precession
method was also used to remove dynamical diffraction along zone axis[3], and could capture
kinematic Bragg diffractions, which showed clean reciprocal lattice.
Without precession beam, we cannot capture all Bragg diffractions in one condition. Off-
axis illumination enables coupling of wave and lattice at higher index (finer structure).
Precession motion rotates the Ewald's sphere around the axis and covers all possible Bragg
conditions. The annular aperture acts as Fourier filter and selects diffractions on 0-th order
index, which is the Fourier transform of the projected density map of the crystal, or in our
case it is the lithography mask.
In the Zernike's phase contrast optical microscope[4], the illuminating light is formed by
annular aperture and focused by the condenser lens, forms the cone beam. At the back focal
plane of the object lens, real image of the annular aperture is created, where the phase ring is
placed to shift 90 degree of the optical phase. All diffractions from the sample are spreading
wave (object wave) and reaches to the image plane (or CCD camera at the downstream),
where the object wave interferes with the illuminating light (reference wave), and create
interference fringe. By overlapping of all interference fringes, the real image is created.
Because the bio-cell is "phase-object", i.e. a low contrast transparent object while cause phase
shift due to index difference. Because the reference wave is phase shifted, the phase-object
can be seen clearly with higher contrast.
The concept of Zernike's phase microscopy was introduced in lithography[5]. Using an
annular-shaped phase filter in the projection optics, it was found to enlarge depth of focus for
lines and spaces, isolated lines, spaces and hole patterns.
There is no precession beam in Zernike's microscope, while the cone beam is playing same
role as the precession beam. Because the light source in the optical microscope is not
transversely coherent, and incoming wavelets run through the annular aperture are fully
independent, i.e., the optical phase and timing are randomly distributed. Photoemission at
the light source is associated with energy transition of electrons, where those events are
random. Therefore, the diffraction at the sample and followed by interference fringe creation,
and photo-ionization process in the CCD detector are independent process of those incoming
wavelets. By capturing image for a certain length of time, many number of events will be
integrated on the detector, just same as, the precession beam does.
We have to be careful on FEL source at EUV wavelength[6]. It is transversely full coherent,
and not suitable for lithography. Truncating beam at any aperture will cause strong
interference pattern on the projected image on the wafer, which overlaps with the mask
pattern. Light source with low transverse coherency is suitable for lithography.
The off-axis illumination has been successfully introduced in photo lithography[7], which
enhances edge contrast. The lithography mask is not crystal structure, while the diffraction
principle is same as X-ray crystallography, as we discuss in the later sections.
In case of EUV lithography, the off-axis illumination is effective. Unfortunately, there is a
fundamental constraint: the mask itself is a mirror, thus the reflection angle has to be large
enough to avoid overlapping of the incoming and outgoing beams. This situation introduces
asymmetric optics in EUV lithography.
In this paper, we try to eliminate the constraint by introducing the plane-parallel resonator
configuration.

2. Difficulties and possible solutions in EUV lithography optics

The key component toward narrow line width; the EUV light source at 13.5 nm is now
available. Higher numerical aperture (NA) is still required, while there are following problems
remained [9].

(1) 0.33 NA system is on production, and next generation high-NA (NA=0.55) system has
been designed, which requires very large mirrors and extreme aspheres at the increased
accuracy requirement. It is challenge to optics technology and manufacturing, resulting in
higher cost.
Origin of this problem is that all optical components are used "off-axis", thus aspheres are
required. We solve this problem by introducing a plane-parallel resonator configuration,
where all optical components will be on-axis, and objective mirror is axisymmetric thus easy
to fabricate in high precession.

(2) At high-NA, the contrast of the mask becomes low.

This is due to lower scattering amplitude at higher frequency. We solve this problem by
introducing off-axis annular illumination (precession beam illumination), which recovers the
high frequency diffraction amplitude, resulting in the higher contrast and sharper edge.

(3) Depth of focus is extremely short at high-NA, thus resist layer is not uniformly activated.
We solve this problem by the annular aperture at the back-focal plane, which works as spatial
filter, to select F(kx, k y,0) :Fourier component of projected image. The depth of focus
becomes long, which is
λ Ra
DOF ≈
2NA 2 2wa
where Ra, wa is the radius and the width of the aperture, respectively. Typically, DOF
becomes five to ten times longer than conventional system. Narrower width of the annular
aperture will provide longer DOF. It must be optimized in experimentally, considering optical
alignment errors and also the source size.

(4) Mask shadow effect becomes a fundamental problem in the high-NA lithography.
The plane-parallel resonator configuration moderates this problem. F(kx, k y,0) is
projected density of the mask, where 3D effect disappears. We may also thinner the absorbing
layer of the mask because of the higher contrast performance.

3. Proposed Optics for High-NA EUV Lithography

Figure 1 shows schematic illustration of the proposed EUV lithography having plane
parallel resonator cavity configuration.
(1) The EUV light is injected through the rotating mirror near the back focal plane, which
forms off-axis illumination (tilted angle) after the condenser mirror.
(2) At the mask, the illuminating beam is reflected back, and forms a spot focus through the
projector mirror at the back-focal plane. The condenser and the projector are the same mirror.
The position of the focus is opposite side of the rotating mirror, and thus, not blocked by the
rotating mirror. It travels down through the objective mirror and illuminates the wafer surface
as parallel beam, which acts as the reference wave for the beam interference.
(3) The reflected illumination beam is focused and travels back to the rotating mirror and
goes out from the cavity.
(4) The diffracted beam from the mask is widely spreading beam, which carry the information
of the mask structure (3D). When it arrives to the annular aperture, the central part is blocked.
Those diffraction components are associated with the de-focus images and cause contrast
degradation. The diffractions near the circle of the same radius as the off-axis illumination
contain the projected image information, thus utilized as image formation through the
annular aperture. It acts as spatial Fourier filter.
(5) The illuminating beam (reference wave) and diffractions (object wave) interfere each
other and create interference fringes inside resist layer of the mask, and cause ionization at
bright zone, as shown in Fig. 2.
(6) After single turn of the mirror rotation, the projected image is recorded inside the resist
layer. Because the depth of focus (DOF) is long, the recorded image is uniform in
longitudinally (except short periodic modulation due to interference effect between incoming
and reflected illuminating beam).
(7) The overlapping de-focus component is weak, and thus the image becomes high contrast.
(8) As the objective mirror, Schwarzschild Objective or Wolter telescopes (type-I or type-III)
will be a suitable candidate. Wolter telescope is axisymmetric and lighter than conventional
solid concave mirror, therefore, a larger diameter mirror can be fabricated in high precession.
Wolter mirror cancels coma-aberration by combining hyperboloid and paraboloid mirrors,
however further optimization will be required in this application of much larger divergence
compared to X-ray telescope. By using larger diameter mirror and optimizing curvatures, it
may be possible to cover the wafer field size 26 mm x 33 mm.

Fig. 1. Proposed high-NA EUV lithography optics. Only the illuminating beam is shown.
Fig. 2 Diffraction waves propagate down through the annular aperture, and reach to the
wafer surface, where create interference fringes. During single mirror rotation, the projected
image of the mask is reconstructed. Illuminating beam goes through the aperture, thus loss of
the beam power is small. For more detail, refer to the later section theoretical background.
4. Case Study of Proposed EUV Lithography Optics
Currently running advanced EUV lithography has NA=0.33 maximum. The next generation
NA=0.55 machine is under development, where the optics components are under test
production[9]. Here we try to design, future generation NA=0.71 and NA=0.5 lithography
optics based on proposed scheme. The following table shows results of estimation, they seem
technically feasible. The depth of focus is much longer, roughly x5 times longer than
conventional system.
Example Design Parameter
Numerical aperture NA 0.71 0.5
Wafer field size Δx, Δy 26 mm x 33 mm =
Magnification factor M x4 =
Mask size MΔx, MΔy 104 mm x 132 mm =
(diameter) (168 mm)
Focal length of projector F1 1000 mm =
Focal length of Wolter F2 250 mm =
telescope
Maximum beam angle at θ2 45 degree 30 degree
exit of Wolter telescope NA = sin θ
Beam divergence at 1 ± 3.8 degree ± 3.8 degree
θdiv = ± Δy/F2
Wolter telescope 2
Maximum diffraction θ1 11.3 degree 7.5 degree
angle at mask θ1 = θ2 /M
Tilt angle of precession θT = 0.9 × θ1 10.1 degrees 6.75 degree
beam on the mask
Wolter telescope DW = 2F1θT 350 mm 235 mm
diameter at entrance
Annular aperture Ra = Dw /2 = F1θT 175 mm 118 mm
wa = 0.1 × Ra 18 mm 12 mm
Projector mirror size Dp = 2F1θ1 + DMSK 560 mm 431 mm
Depth of focus λ Ra 67 nm 135 nm
DOF ≈
2NA 2 2wa
Mirror Rotation Speed 20 cycle/sec =
EUV shots per cycle 20 kH EUV Source 1000 shots =
Throughput*1 at 100 stamps/wafer 180 WPH =
Note (*1) Required photons dose has not yet been estimated. 2 cycles for one field image.
100 msec for stepper motion.
5. Proposed Optics for High-NA Optical Lithography at UV Wavelength
Instead of rotating mirror, we can use annular aperture at upstream illumination system,
this is similar to Zernike's phase microscopy, while working principle at downstream is
unique in the proposed lithography.

(1) At this wavelength, we may use optical lenses, and all components are on-axis.
(2) The annular aperture in the upstream illumination system creates hollow beam, which
provides off-axis illumination on the lithography mask, improves resolution.
(3) The illumination beam and diffracted beam travel down through projector lens, and
filtered by the second annular aperture. The diameter of two apertures is identical, thus
illumination beam goes through the aperture, and finally create mask image.
(4) The second annular aperture selects transversely scattered diffractions associated with
the longitudinally projected mask image, and cut the de-focus components.
(5) The created image is high-contrast and DOF (depth of focus) becomes long.
(6) Diameter of the aperture should be smaller than the numerical aperture of the objective
lens. Best results will be given at the outer edge is close to maximum aperture of the
objective lens.
(7) Narrower width of the annular aperture will provide longer DOF. It must be optimized
in experimentally, considering optical alignment errors and also the source size.
Fig. 3. Proposed optical lithography at UV wavelength. There is no rotating mirror, and all
light waves propagate downward. If we fold the diagram in half at the lithography mask, it
becomes the plane-parallel resonator configuration, shown in Fig. 1.
6. Theoretical Background

6.1 Conceptual 1:1 imaging system

We consider 1:1 image projection system as shown in Fig. 4, where two lenses of the same
focal length-F are arranged in series with separation equal to twice focal length: 2F. If the
illuminating beam is coherent, we have Fourier transform of the object at the back focal plane.
We choose the diffraction beam at (kx, ky) and also the central beam by two-hole aperture.
After traveling down through the lens, those two beams will cross each other and create
interference fringe around the image plane.

Fig. 4. Conceptual 1:1 imaging system. Diffraction beam at (kx, ky) at the focal plan and the
central beam are selected by two-hole aperture located at the back-focal plane.

In the next step, we propagate back the waves to the object plane. We may consider reversing
the time clock. We should have the interference fringe around the object with the same pitch,
i.e., which is a mirror image of the downstream interference fringe as shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5. Back projected image of the interference fringe.

Fig. 6. Bragg diffraction with the periodic electron density modulation.

In the context of X-ray crystallography [9], the interference fringe is identical to the Fourier
component of electron density of the object, which causes Bragg diffraction as shown Fig. 6.
The reflection occurs when the following Bragg condition is satisfied.
2d si n θB = n λ (1)
where λ is the wavelength of the light, d is the spacing of the density modulation and θB is
the reflection angle, n is integer. This phenomenon is also utilized as multi-coating mirror
design in the EUV lithography system.
The reflectivity or the reflection beam intensity from the electron density modulation is
proportional to the Fourier amplitude of the object at the scattering vector S.
S = k 2 − k1 (2)
where k1 and k 2 are the illuminating wave vector and the scattered (diffracted) wave vector,
respectively. The Fourier component is given by

∫
F(S) = ρ(r) ⋅ exp(iS ⋅ r) d v (3)

ρ(r) is the electron density of the object, i.e., the lithography mask.

Fig. 7. Scattering vector S, Ewald's sphere and the Fourier component of the object.

The vector length of the wavenumber of scattered beam is same as the illuminating beam,
thus those vectors should be on a sphere of radius k 0, which is called Ewald's sphere.

k 0 = 2π /λ = | k1 | = | k 2 | = k 2x + k 2y + k 2z (4)

The endpoint of the scattering vector picks up the amplitude of Fourier components F(S),
which contains the phase, i.e., it is complex amplitude: F = | F | ⋅ exp[iα]. Note that F is
not a vector.
6.2 Improving Resolution and Contrast
When the lithography mask is illuminated by the coherent light from its normal direction
as discussed in Fig. 7, there is the soften-edge problem due to high frequency loss in the
projected image. As shown in Fig. 7, the scattering vector will follow on Ewald's sphere, and
the longitudinal wavenumber kz becomes higher at higher frequency (higher scattering angle
at higher resolution), where Fourier component is low, thus edge contrast becomes lower.
The transverse distribution of F(S) represents the reticle pattern on the mask, while the
longitudinal distribution is related to the thickness of absorbing layer and its mirror image.
F(S) can be written down in Cartesian coordinate as follows [5].

∫∫∫
F(Sx, Sy, Sz ) = e i2π(Sx x+Sy y+Sz z)ρ(x, y, z) d x d yd z

∫∫∫
= ρ(x, y, z) e i2π(Sx x+Sy y)d x d y ⋅ e i2πSz z d z (5)

Effect of the longitudinal structure variation is given by the last term. Thinner the reticle will
provide broad spread of F(S) in longitudinal direction, and thus high frequency loss
becomes less important. While in EUV lithography, to achieve enough contrast, the absorbing
layer becomes longer than the wavelength at 13.5 nm, this effect is not negligible. Additionally,
the mask absorbing pattern is created on the multilayer coating mirror, as a result, there exists
double layer absorber images (real and mirror images), which cause shadowing effect and
further complicated longitudinal Fourier components.
If the depth of focus is limited, the out of focus components will be blurred and overlap to
the focused image, as a result, lower the contrast. To improve resolution and contrast, we need
to obtain projected image of the mask, which is given by Fourier component on 0-th z-order
plane [9].

∫∫ ∫
[
F(Sx, Sy,0) = ρ(x, y, z) d z] ⋅ e i2π(Sx x+Sy y)d x d y (6)

Finally, we have projected image reconstructed at the wafer as follows.

∫∫
σ (x, y) = F(Sx, Sy,0) ⋅ e −i2π(kx x+k y y )d kx d k y (7)

In this integration, F(0,0,0) is the illuminating beam, which acts as the reference wave.
F(kx, k y,0)'s are the object waves interfere with F(0,0,0), create interference fringes. Each
fringe planes are normal to the wafer surface as shown in Fig. 2.

6.3 Off-axis annular illumination

Similar to the dark field optical microscope, and Zernike's phase contrast microscopy, off-
axis illumination was employed at upstream of the condenser lens in the lithography, which
enhances the resolution [2]. Basic concept of off-axis illumination is shown in Fig. 8. The
illuminating beam is tilted by half of total scattering angle. The scattering vector S becomes
close to 0-th order z-plane (horizontal), thus the higher frequency components will be
recovered.

Fig. 8. Wave scattering with the off-axis illumination. The scattering vector S becomes closer
to the 0-th z-order plane (kz~0).

As shown in Fig. 9, the intersection of Ewald's sphere to 0-th z-order plane becomes a circle,
here we call "Ewald circle" in this paper. By rotating the illumination beam around the axis,
Ewald circle rotates on the frequency space and thus covers all diffraction spots. Rotation
steps has to be fine enough to avoid missing Bragg diffractions, associated with repeated
reticle structure on the mask. The width of the circle is identical to the width of the annular
aperture, which is roughly 10% of radius, thus we need 60 steps or more (≥ 2π Ra /wa).
Fig. 9 On the frequency space, Ewald circle rotates according to the beam precession, and
thus all diffraction spots are covered uniformly.

6.4. Introducing annular aperture

We introduce Fourier filter, i.e., the annular aperture in the projection optics. Fig. 10 shows
perspective view of the wave scattering in real space. The scattering wave into Ewald circle is
associated with the horizontal scatterings, which contain projected image information:
F(kx, k y,0).

Fig. 10. Perspective view of the wave scattering. The scattering wave into Ewald circle is due
to the horizontal scatterings, which contain projected image information: F(kx, k y,0).
Fig. 11. Electron diffraction data with tilted beam illumination (copied from ref. 3), which
clearly shows Ewald's circle.

In the beam precession study on electron diffraction crystallography, it was found the same
effect experimentally as shown in Fig. 11 [3].
We introduce an annular aperture to select the diffraction of 0-th z-order, i.e., F(kx, k y,0),
associated with projection image. This method was originally devised by Professor Martin J.
Buerger to select Bragg diffractions of 0-th order, which was successfully used in the
crystallography to understand crystal structure, started in 1940's [1].
After the annular aperture, the illumination beam and selected diffractions will interfere
each other on the image plane. During single rotation of the mirror, illumination beam scans
all azimuthal direction, and finally the projected density is recorded in the resist layer on the
wafer, which is mathematically eq. (7).
7. Discussions and Conclusions
Working principle of Bragg diffraction and its applications are basically same concept as
optical imaging on non-crystal structure, except the crystal structure has translational
symmetry, which requests additional modification on Fourier amplitude, called "convolution
integral"; well established mathematical procedure. Non crystalline structure produces
smoothly distributed diffractions, and thus it is straightforward to process data and obtain
images. The rotating mirror method is equivalent to rotation of crystal in X-ray
crystallography. X-ray crystal request very careful angle scanning, since number of molecules
in 3D crystal is huge, and Bragg diffraction condition is tight.
Lithography mask is similarly complicated huge system. Fortunately, it is still two-
dimensional system, or in other words, we are interested in 2D structure, not 3D. Therefore,
proposed method in this system would safely work to reduce complicity from 3D to 2D
structure.
If we start 3D chip development, we have to struggle with huge amount of data in the future.

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