METHODS FOR MEASUREMENT OF DEVELOPMENT PARAMETERS IN THE MANUFACTURING LINE FOR USE IN PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY MODELING

One of the outstanding problems of photolithography is the measurement of development parameters, particularly in one's own manufacturing li ne, We present an inexpensive practical method for obtaining values of development parameters for use in photolithography modeling, The meth od utilizes the actual production equipment used in the fab, as well a s the computer modeling package for which the development parameters a re being collected, In addressing experimental geometries with which o ne may carry out such data collection, we discuss the critical issue o f standing waves and their impact on measurement accuracy. Two techniq ues are presented for solving the problem of standing waves and their extreme impact on the quality of collected data. One involves creating a photoactive component latent image in which there are no standing w aves. The other is a means by which development parameters may still b e obtained for situations such as photolithography of thin film magnet ic recording heads, where the standing waves may not necessarily be de convolved from the development process or data collection, Development parameters using 1.15 mu m of AZ 4110 resist on a NiFe substrate were measured using the latter technique.