Computing method for extreme ultraviolet lithography imaging with aberration consideration

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology is a key technology used to manufacture very small layout patterns on advanced integrated circuits. Concurrently, computational lithography plays a crucial role in advanced lithographic processes. In computational lithography, the establishment of an EUV lithography imaging model and the consideration of factors are crucial for enhancing the image fidelity and computational efficiency. Therefore, we propose a novel calculation method in the field of EUV lithography imaging, which considers optical aberrations and partially coherent illumination conditions in the calculation process of EUV lithography imaging to significantly reduce the lithography patterning error, and maintain high computational efficiency. This work focuses on the research of the 0.33 numerical aperture (NA) EUV lithography imaging system to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed calculation method. The calculation and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed calculation method can significantly reduce the errors of lithography patterns while maintaining high computational efficiency. Our future work will focus on the establishment and optimization of EUV lithography imaging models under the conditions of high-NA (NA=0.55) and complicated mask 3D effects. This endeavor will further improve the image fidelity and computational efficiency of high-NA EUV lithography systems to fulfill the escalating manufacturing demands of forthcoming integrated circuits.