Abstract

A number of new types of optical or optical/electronic instrument are being utilized in an attempt to meet the metrology requirements for semiconductor manufacturing. These technologies include: Linnik interference microscopes in the coherence probe mode of operation; white light confocal microscopes; laser scanning confocal microscopes; Mireau interference microscopes in the correlation mode of operation; sophisticated direct and inverse scattering simulations of microscope images complementing and enhancing optical instruments; deep ultraviolet classical and confocal microscopes; darkfield laser scanning microscopes; "laser scatterometry” instruments, etc. All this optical innovation has failed so far to prevent the market penetration of the scanning electron microscope for the linewidth measurement task, but optical methods are the dominant technology for overlay measurement. The combination of more sophisticated modeling techniques with advanced optical instrumentation promises to deep optics in the running for some time to come, but the technical challenges are considerable.

© 1991 Optical Society of America