Patent ID: 7685560
Filing Date: 2010-03-23
Classification: G03F

Abstract:
1. A method for monitoring an exposure process comprising: irradiating an electron beam onto a substrate having a surface with a resist pattern formed thereon through exposure and development in fabrication of a semiconductor device to thereby obtain a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of the resist pattern formed on the surface of said substrate, the resist pattern having two types of line-and-space patterns different in pitch width from each other in which a sectional shape of one line-and-space pattern is a forward taper shape when a sectional shape of another line-and-space pattern is a reverse taper shape; calculating a feature quantity of the resist pattern from the SEM image of the resist pattern thus obtained; and using information of the feature quantity of the resist pattern thus calculated and information as to a relationship between at least one parameter of processing conditions during said exposure and the feature quantity of the resist pattern formed on the substrate through the exposure and development and also information of a proper range of the feature quantity of the resist pattern to be formed on the substrate through the exposure and development to determine that a feature quantity of processing condition parameter exceeds an allowable range when the feature quantity of the resist pattern is out of said proper range.