Study on ADI CD bias correlating ABC function

As the technology node of semiconductor industry is being driven into more advanced 28 nm and beyond, the critical dimension (CD) error budget at after-development inspection (ADI) stage and its control are more and more important and difficult (1-4). 1 nm or even 0.5 nm CD difference is critical for process control. 0.5~1 nm drift of poly linewidth will result in a detectable off-target drift of device performance. The 0.5~1 nm CD drift of hole or metal linewidth on the backend interconnecting layers can potentially contribute to the bridging of metal patterns to vias, and thereby impact yield. In this paper, we studied one function in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) measurement, i.e. the adjustment of brightness and contrast (ABC). We revealed how the step of addressing focus and even the choice of addressing pattern may bring in a systematic error into the CD measurement. This provides a unique insight in the CD measurement and the measurement consistency of through-pitch (TP) patterns and functional patterns.