Compensation of EUV lithography mask blank defect based on an advanced genetic algorithm

Mask blank defect is one of the most important factors that degrades the image quality of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system, and further leads to a yield lose. In order to compensate the amplitude and phase distortions caused by the EUV mask blank defects, this paper proposes an advanced algorithm to optimize the mask absorber pattern based on genetic algorithm. First, a successive approximation correction method is used to roughly compensate the effect of mask blank defect. Then, an advanced genetic algorithm is proposed to obtain higher efficiency and compensation accuracy, which uses an adaptive coding strategy and a fitness function considering normalized image log slope of lithography image. For illustration, the proposed method is verified based on rectangular contact patterns and complex pattern with different defects. The aerial images of optimized masks are evaluated by a commercial lithography simulator. It will show that the proposed method can mitigate the impact of mask defects, and improve the fidelity of lithography print image. The simulation results also demonstrate the higher convergence efficiency and mask manufacturability can be guaranteed by the proposed method.