Patent ID: 7974819

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with computer executable instructions for modeling an intensity profile at a surface resulting from illuminating a mask with an illumination system having an illumination source, including instructions that when executed perform the steps of: receiving polarization data describing the illumination source; generating a polarization data model of the illumination source using the polarization data by evaluating a plurality of two-dimensional functions at a plurality of points in a pupil plane associated with the illumination system, wherein the plurality of two-dimensional functions includes: a first function describing polarization of the illumination source along a first axis; a second function describing polarization of the illumination source along a second axis; a third and a fourth function each describing a coupling component of the illumination source between the first and second axes and based at least in part on a phase angle between the first and second axes; and a fifth function describing a non-polarization component based on a degree of polarization; generating a matrix operator using the polarization data model; generating a mask function based on the mask; and convoluting the matrix operator with the mask function to generate intensity profile data representing the intensity profile at the surface.