Imaging performance of the EUV high NA anamorphic system

This paper presents the predicted imaging performance for an anamorphic EUV high NA (>0.5) exposure system with a 4x magnification in X orientation and a 8x magnification in Y orientation. It has a half field size with which the productivity requirements can be maintained. The main findings of the study are that horizontal and vertical features have very similar process window sizes despite magnification difference. A new definition of the Mask Error Factor (MEF) is introduced that is more relevant for anamorphic imaging; it shows that reticle CD errors have 2x larger impact for vertical compared to horizontal features. For dark field horizontal two-bar trenches relatively small mask induced focus shift was observed compared to the 0.33NA case, probably due to the relatively small Mask Angle of Incidence in the Y orientation with the 8x magnification. Finally a Ni type absorber has potential to further improve imaging performance.