Linewidth measurement with an optical microscope: the effect of operating conditions on the image profile.

A theoretical model of the optical microscope based on the theory of partial coherence is used to predict the image profiles of lines on IC photomasks and assess factors contributing to measurement errors for different conditions of microscope operation. A comparison of experimental and theoretical image profiles is given, showing good agreement with theory for a 0.9 N.A. and linewidths as small as 0.5 microm. The primary sources of differences appear to be edge quality and accuracy of focus. The theory indicates that for well-corrected microscope optical systems, spectrally filtered to eliminate longitudinal chromatic aberration and chromatic difference of magnification, accurate determinations of linewidth may be made from the image profile using a threshold of 25% of maximum intensity (corrected for finite background transmittance in the opaque region). The correspondence between the edge location and the 25% threshold appears to be nearly invariant with small amounts of defocus and spherical aberration as well as variation in the numerical aperture of the condenser.