Printability and propagation of stochastic defects through a study o defects programmed on EUV mask

The feasibility of using extreme ultra violet (EUV) lithography in high volume manufacturing makes the technology a very strong candidate for sub 20nm patterning(1,2). However defect control remains a major challenge even today. The aim of this paper is to understand propagation of the programmed defects present on the EUV mask to wafer to get an understanding of how stochastic defects may evolve through processes and how we can mitigate it. The evolution of the defects from mask to wafer post lithography and post etch has been studied both theoretically by calculating change in defect area from a script on images taken with a-beam inspection and other metrology techniques like atomic force microscopy. The end goal is to study the propagation of these programmed defects from post lithography to post etch on wafer through parameters like defect area, defect sizes and stack height information[l][2].