Which Mask is Preferred for Sub-60 nm Node Imaging?

ArF immersion lithography may be the best candidate for sub-60 nm device patterning. However, the polarization effect is the most prominent root cause for the degradation of the image quality in high numerical aperture (NA) immersion lithography as the feature size shrinks. Therefore, it is important to understand the polarization effect in the mask. It is common knowledge that a small mask pattern is considered as the wave guide of transmission light. The induced polarization effect shows the different aspects between the conventional mask and the attenuated phase-shift mask (PSM). In this paper, we considered the effects of polarization state as a function of mask properties. The aerial image depends on the polarization states induced by the mask. We evaluated the performances of the conventional mask and the attenuated PSM by using the Solid-E^TM simulation and AIMS^TM (Aerial Image Measurement System) tool along with real wafer printing.