Measurement Resolution of Edge Position in Digital Optical Imaging

The semiconductor industry relies on digital optical imaging for the overlay metrology of integrated circuit patterns. One critical performance demand in the particular application of digital imaging is placed on the edge resolution that is defined as the smallest detectable displacement of an edge from its image acquired in digital from. As the critical feature size of integrated circuit patterns reaches below 0.35 micrometers, the edge resolution is required to be less than 0.01 micrometers. This requirement is so stringent that fundamental behaviors of digital optical imaging need to be explored especially for the precision coordinate metrology. Our investigation reveals that the edge resolution shows quasi-random characteristics, not being simply deduced from relevant opto-electronic system parameters. Hence, a stochastic upper bound analysis is made to come up with the worst edge resolution that can statistically well predict actual indeterminate edge resolutions obtained with high magnification microscope objectives.