Patent ID: 8521481
Filing Date: 2013-08-27
Classification: G03F

Abstract:
1. A method of generating a model for simulating the imaging performance of an optical imaging system, said method comprising the steps of: defining said optical imaging system and a process to be utilized by said optical imaging system; defining a three-dimensional model equation comprising tunable parameters, said model equation representing the imaging performance of said optical imaging system and said process, and said model equation including a non-linear resist performance component, wherein the resist performance component is a combination of an optical image intensity and a set of diffusion kernels corresponding to variation of one or more physical characteristics of a resist patterning process with respect to variation in image intensity; simulating resist contours using the defined model equation; comparing the simulated resist contours with measured resist contours to produce a correction term; and adjusting the tunable parameters of the model equation using the correction term to generate the model for simulating the imaging performance of the optical imaging system that provides improved matching of the simulated resist contours with the measured resist contours, wherein the step of defining the three-dimensional model equation includes producing a system pseudo intensity function (SPIF) having three spatial dimensions by convolving the set of diffusion kernels representing the optical imaging system with a transformed non-linear intensity map.