Diffraction-based overlay metrology using polarization-resolved dark-field digital holographic microscopy

Background: Accurate pattern positioning precision between two layers in a chip stack, known as an overlay (OV), is crucial in semiconductor device manufacturing. To facilitate the ongoing trend in the semiconductor industry to fabricate integrated circuits with smaller feature sizes, new dark-field OV metrology imaging systems are being investigated. A large challenge of dark-field microscopy is to correct the nonuniform intensity profile of the illumination beam. Aim: We present a polarization-resolved dark-field digital holographic microscope to measure OV from the polarization response of diffraction-based OV (DBO) targets. It will be shown that polarization-resolved imaging of OV targets enables OV metrology that is robust against target position offsets and less sensitive to inhomogeneities in the intensity of the beam profile. Approach: We retrieve the polarization response of the DBO target by simultaneously measuring the interference signals from two orthogonally polarized reference beams along with the image signal. The OV is retrieved from the polarization response of the þ 1st and −1st diffraction order. Results: We experimentally demonstrate the OV-dependent first-order polarization response of a DBO target where the retrieved OV values remain independent of the target’s position. Conclusions: We present a polarization-resolved dark-field microscope for OV retrieval that remains robust for varying intensity profiles of the illumination beam.