Qualification, monitoring, and integration into a production environment of the world's first fully programmable illuminator

This paper will describe the development, qualification, monitoring, and integration into a production environment of the world's first fully programmable illuminator for optical lithography. FlexRay™, a programmable illuminator based on a MEMs multi-mirror array that was developed for TWINSCAN XT and TWINSCAN NXT series ASML immersion scanners, was first installed in January 2010 at Albany Nanotech, with subsequent tools installed in IBM's East Fishkill Manufacturing facility. After a brief overview of the concept and benefits of FlexRay, this paper will provide a comprehensive assessment of its reliability and imaging performance. A CD-based pupil qualification (CDPQ) procedure will be introduced and shown to be an efficient and effective way to monitor pupil performance. Various CDPQ and in-resist measurement results will be described, offering convincing evidence that FlexRay reliably generates high-quality pupils and is well suited for high volume manufacturing at lithography's leading edge. © 2011 SPIE.