Accurate measurement of templates and imprinted grating structures using Mueller matrix ellipsometry

Chen Xiu-Guo; Liu Shi-Yuan; Zhang Chuan-Wei; Wu Yi-Ping; Ma Zhi-Chao; Sun Tang-You; Xu Zhi-Mou

doi:10.7498/aps.63.180701

Abstract

In order to control nanoimprint lithography (NIL) processes for achieving good fidelity, the fast, low-cost, non-destructive and accurate measurement of geometric parameters of templates and imprinted grating structures is of great importance. Compared with conventional ellipsometric scatterometry, which only obtains two ellipsometric angles and has 2 changeable measurement conditions, i.e., the wavelength and the incidence angle, Mueller matrix ellipsometry (MME) can provide up to 16 quantities of a 4×4 Mueller matrix in each measurement with 3 changeable measurement conditions, i.e., the wavelength, the incidence angle and the azimuthal angle. Therefore, MME can acquire much more useful information about the sample. It is expected that much more accurate measurements of nanostructures can be achieved by choosing proper measurement configurations and completely using the rich information hidden in the measured Mueller matrices. Accordingly, the templates and imprinted grating structures in NIL processes are measured using an in-house developed Mueller matrix ellipsometer. We experimentally demonstrate that more accurate quantification of geometric parameters, such as line width, line height, sidewall angle and residual layer thickness, can be achieved by performing MME measurements in the optimal configuration and meanwhile by incorporating depolarization effects into the optical model. Moreover, as for the imprinted grating structures, the residual layer thickness variation over the illumination spot can also be directly determined by MME. The comparison between MME-extracted template and imprinted resist profiles also indicates an excellent fidelity of the nanoimprint pattern transfer process.

Keywords:

Authors and contacts

1.
State Key Laboratory for Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China;
2.
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China;
3.
School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Funds: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 91023032, 51005091), the National Instrument Development Specific Project of China (Grant No. 2011YQ160002), and the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University of China.

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[26]	Chen X G 2013 Ph. D. Dissertation (Wuhan: Huazhong University of Science and Technology) (in Chinese)[陈修国 2013 博士学位论文 (武汉: 华中科技大学)]
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[30]	Chen X G, Liu S Y, Zhang C W, Zhu J L 2013 Measurement 46 2638
[31]	Chen X G, Liu S Y, Zhang C W, Jiang H 2013 Appl. Opt. 52 6727
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[35]	Forouhi A R, Bloomer I 1988 Phys. Rev. B 38 1865
[36]	Pochi Y 2005 Optical Waves in Layered Media (New York: Wiley)
[37]	Chen X G, Liu S Y, Gu H G, Zhang C W 2014 Thin Solid Films, doi: 10.1016/j.tsf.2014.01.049

Cited By

[1]	Chou S Y, Krauss P R, Renstrom P J 1996 Science 272 85
[2]	Chou S Y, Krauss P R, Zhang W, Guo L, Zhuang L 1997 J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 15 2897
[3]	Fuard D, Perret C, Farys V, Gourgon C, Schiavone P 2005 J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 23 3069
[4]	Patrick H J, Germer T A, Ding Y F, Ro H W, Richter L J, Soles C L 2008 Appl. Phys. Lett. 93 233015
[5]	Yu Z N, Hwu J, Liu Y D, Su Z P, Yang H, Wang H Y, Hu W, Xu Y, Kurataka N, Hsu Y, Lee S, Gauzner G, Lee K, Kuo D 2010 J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28 C6M130
[6]	Ma Z C, Xu Z M, Peng J, Sun T Y, Chen X G, Zhao W N, Liu S S, Wu X H, Zou C, Liu S Y 2014 Acta Phys. Sin. 63 039101(in Chinese)[马智超, 徐智谋, 彭静, 孙堂友, 陈修国, 赵文宁, 刘思思, 武兴会, 邹超, 刘世元 2014 63 039101]
[7]	Azzam R M A, Bashara N M 1977 Ellipsometry and Polarized Light (Amsterdam: North-Holland)
[8]	Chen L Y, Hou X Y, Huang D M, Zhang F L, Feng X W, Yang M, Su Y, Qian Y H, Wang X 1994 Chin. Phys. 3 595
[9]	Zhang X J, Ma H L, Li Y X, Wang Q P, Ma J, Zong F J, Xiao H D 2006 Chin. Phys. 15 2385
[10]	Zhang T, Yin J, Ding L H, Zhang W F 2013 Chin. Phys. B 22 117801
[11]	Huang H T, Kong W, Terry Jr F L 2001 Appl. Phys. Lett. 78 3983
[12]	Niu X, Jakatdar N, Bao J W, Spanos C J 2001 IEEE Trans. Semicond. Manuf. 14 97
[13]	Silver R, Germer T, Attota R, Barnes B M, Bundary B, Allgair J, Marx E, Jun J 2007 Proc. SPIE 6518 65180U
[14]	Novikova T, De Martino A, Hatit S B, Drévillon B 2006 Appl. Opt. 45 3688
[15]	Li J, Hwu J J, Liu Y D, Rabello S, Liu Z, Hu J T 2010 J. Micro Nanolith. MEMS MOEMS 9 041305
[16]	Chen X G, Liu S Y, Zhang C W, Jiang H 2013 J. Micro Nanolith. MEMS MOEMS 12 033013
[17]	Chen X G, Zhang C W, Liu S Y 2013 Appl. Phys. Lett. 103 151605
[18]	Chen X G, Liu S Y, Zhang C W, Jiang H, Ma Z C, Sun T Y, Xu Z M 2014 Opt. Express 22 15165
[19]	Collins R W, Koh J 1999 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 16 1997
[20]	Liu S Y, Chen X G, Zhang C W 2014 ECS Trans. 60 237
[21]	Fujiwara H 2007 Spectroscopic Ellipsometry: Principles and Applications (New York: Wiley)
[22]	Liu S Y 2014 J. Mech. Eng. 50 1(in Chinese)[刘世元 2014 机械工程学报 50 1]
[23]	Moharam M G, Grann E B, Pommet D A, Gaylord T K 1995 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 12 1068
[24]	Li L F 1997 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 14 2758
[25]	Liu S Y, Ma Y, Chen X G, Zhang C W 2012 Opt. Eng. 51 081504
[26]	Chen X G 2013 Ph. D. Dissertation (Wuhan: Huazhong University of Science and Technology) (in Chinese)[陈修国 2013 博士学位论文 (武汉: 华中科技大学)]
[27]	Gil J J, Bernabeu E 1986 Opt. Acta 33 185
[28]	van de Hulst H C 1957 Light Scattering by Small Particles (New York: Wiley)
[29]	Zhang C W, Liu S Y, Shi T L, Tang Z R 2009 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 26 2327
[30]	Chen X G, Liu S Y, Zhang C W, Zhu J L 2013 Measurement 46 2638
[31]	Chen X G, Liu S Y, Zhang C W, Jiang H 2013 Appl. Opt. 52 6727
[32]	Zhang Z, Xu Z M, Sun T Y, He J, Xu H F, Zhang X M, Liu S Y 2013 Acta Phys. Sin. 62 168102(in Chinese)[张铮, 徐智谋, 孙堂友, 何健, 徐海峰, 张学明, 刘世元 2013 62 168102]
[33]	Peng J, Xu Z M, Wu X F, Sun T Y 2013 Acta Phys. Sin. 62 036104(in Chinese)[彭静, 徐智谋, 吴小峰, 孙堂友 2013 62 036104]
[34]	Herzinger C M, Johs B, McGahan W A, Woollam J A, Paulson W 1998 J. Appl. Phys. 83 3323
[35]	Forouhi A R, Bloomer I 1988 Phys. Rev. B 38 1865
[36]	Pochi Y 2005 Optical Waves in Layered Media (New York: Wiley)
[37]	Chen X G, Liu S Y, Gu H G, Zhang C W 2014 Thin Solid Films, doi: 10.1016/j.tsf.2014.01.049

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Vol. 63, Issue 18 - 2014-09-20

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