Abstract
We studied the feasibility of optical lithography for the critical layers of 0.12${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ DRAM assuming ArF excimer laser as a light source. To enhance the fidelity of aerial image and process margin, Phase shift mask (PSM) patterns as well as binary mask patterns are corrected with in-house developed Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) software. As the result, w found that the aerial image of critical layers of DRAM cell with 0.12${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ design rule could not be reproduced with binary masks. But if we use PSM or optical proximity corrected PSM, the fidelity of aerial image ,resolution and process margin are so much enhanced that they could be processed with optical lithography.