Polarization aberration analysis in

lithographic tools

Shuang Xu
Bo Tao
Yongxing Guo
Gongfa Li

Shuang Xu, Bo Tao, Yongxing Guo, Gongfa Li, “Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools,”
Opt. Eng. 58(8), 082405 (2019), doi: 10.1117/1.OE.58.8.082405.

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 Optical Engineering 58(8), 082405 (August 2019)

Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools

Shuang Xu,a,b,* Bo Tao,a Yongxing Guo,b and Gongfa Lia,b
a
Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Metallurgical Equipment and Control Technology, Wuhan,
China
b
Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission and Manufacturing Engineering, Wuhan, China

Abstract. Hypernumerical aperture and polarized illumination are the key technologies of resolution enhance-
ment of lithography. When the numerical aperture reaches 0.85 and above, especially in the immersion lithog-
raphy, polarization effect must be taken into consideration. The performance of the projection lens needs to be
characterized by rigorous polarization aberration. The vector polarization imaging system that is suitable for
hypernumerical aperture is established, and the distortion effects introduced by polarization aberration are
analyzed. Orientation Zernike polynomials-based method and Pauli–Zernike polynomials-based method are
adopted to parameterize the polarization aberration represented by Jones pupil. Critical dimension error, place-
ment error, and normal int. log slope index are introduced as the index to value imaging distortion. The proposed
method and analysis conclusion would provide meaningful guidance for projection lens design of lithographic
tools. © 2019 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) [DOI: 10.1117/1.OE.58.8.082405]
Keywords: polarization aberration; imaging system; Zernike polynomial; lithography.
Paper 181112SS received Aug. 3, 2018; accepted for publication Dec. 19, 2018; published online Jan. 24, 2019.

1 Introduction coherent illumination conditions,12,13 the polarization element

To further improve the lithography resolution, one of the key
technologies is to increase numerical aperture (NA) of the
projection lens and using polarized source for illumination.
The NA of traditional dry lithography has reached 0.85 and
above, and for immersion lithography, NA has reached 1.35.1
When the NA is small, polarization effect is not obvious,
which is always ignored.2 But when the NA reaches 0.85
and above, especially in immersion lithography, polarization
effect must be taken into consideration.3 The performance of
the projection lens needs to be characterized by rigorous
polarization aberration.4,5
Polarization aberration is the vector expansion of scalar
aberration, which presents light field distortion caused by
the amplitude attenuation and phase change when light
propagates through projection lens. Different from scalar
aberration, polarization aberration takes relative amplitude
attenuation (namely diattenuation) and relative phase delay
(namely retardance) caused by the dichroism birefringence
of material into consideration, which fully reflects the per-
formance of the projection lens in lithographic tools.
Russell Chipmen developed the theory of polarization
aberration systematically, and the polarization characteristic
of the optical imaging system was studied.6 Nikon integrated
phase interferometer and polarimetry together and developed
iPot to measure the polarization aberration.7,8 By testing the
aberration, scalar amplitude transmittance, and polarization
components separately, the complete polarization aberration
can be reconstructed. But since each component needs to
adopt different instruments, calibration problems9 in the
process affect the accuracy of analysis. Toshiba utilized inte-
grated polaroid and wave plate on the mask to analyze the
imaging distortion of polarization aberration.10,11 However,
as the imaging system of lithographic tools is under partially
should be designed and manufactured.
To further analyze the impact of polarization aberration
on lithographic imaging, there are two main ways to decom-
pose the Jones pupil, which is widely used in analyzing the
polarization properties of projection lens.14,15 One is orien-
tation Zernike polynomial (OZP) decomposition,16,17 and the
other is Pauli–Zernike polynomial (PZP) decomposition.18–22
Research of these decomposition methods have been
reported, and the imaging impact of some certain terms
has been studied.15–21 In particular, Wang’s research group
focused on the PZP decomposition and studied the impact
of imaging analytically.19–21
In this paper, we aimed to build a vector model, which
should be suitable for both OZP decomposition and PZP
decomposition, and analyze the polarization aberration in
both ways for hyper-NA lithography. Starting from the
propagation characteristics of the electromagnetic field,
we analytically build the polarization imaging model and
analyze the distortion effects introduced by polarization
aberration. OZP-based method and PZP-based method are
adopted to parameterize the polarization aberration repre-
sented by Jones pupil, and critical dimension error (CDE),
placement error (PE), and normal int. log slope (NILS)
are introduced as the index to value imaging distortion.4
Analysis conclusion in this paper would provide meaningful
guidance for projection lens design of lithographic tools.13
2 Theory
The imaging system in lithographic tools transfers the tem-
plate pattern from mask to the silicon wafer surface. The
whole imaging system is generally divided into the following
four parts: illumination system, mask, projection lens, and
wafer surface, as shown in Fig. 1.

*Address all correspondence to Shuang Xu, E-mail: shuangxu@wust.edu.cn 0091-3286/2019/$25.00 © 2019 SPIE

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 Xu et al.: Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools

Mask Projection lens only [Ex ; Ey ] component spreads to the entrance pupil,
Chip which is equivalent to vertical incidence of parallel light
into a plane.
Source From the enter-pupil to the expupil, the light vectors are
influenced by projection lens, especially the polarization
aberration. For the projection lens, it is considered that
the entire lens is treated as a single entity by using a pupil
to characterize its characteristics, and each coordinate point
on the pupil represents the light passing through the whole
projection lens system. With the polarization aberration
represented by Jones pupil, the expupil light passes the pro-
jection lens can be represented of the enter-pupil [Ex ; Ey ]
Fig. 1 The schematic diagram of imaging system for lithographic multiplied by Jones pupil J. The exit-pupil light is trans-
tools.
formed to the global coordinates (x; y; z) by the coordinate
transformation matrix F, interfering and imaging with vector
2.1 Polarization Imaging Modeling superposition carried out. The electric field on the wafer at
image plane is represented as
When considering polarization aberration, scalar imaging
model is no longer suitable, a vector imaging model should 2 3
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e002;326;565

be established to analyze the impact of imaging, which is Ex

6 7
shown in Fig. 2. According to the Abbe’s imaging theory,14 Ewafer ¼ 4 Ey 7
6
5
the whole intensity distribution on the wafer surface under
Ez
spatially partially coherent illumination can be calculated wafer
2 3
as the sum of intensities of each point source in the partially 2 3" #
Z Z Fxx Fxy
coherent region S. It needs to be pointed out that all the 6 7 J xx J xy Ex −ikðfxþgyÞ
¼ 6 Fyx Fyy 74 5 e dfdg:
parameters in the description of lithographic tools are nor- 4 5 J J Ey
yx yy
malized with respect to the characters of the tool,14 after Fzx Fzy
which, the calculation can be simplified without wondering
the unit: (2)
X ZZ
Iðx; yÞ ¼ I s ðf; gÞ ¼ Sðf; gÞdfdg: (1) Each element in the matrix above is a function of the
spatial-domain coordinates (x; y) or the frequency-domain
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e001;63;435

s
The light that comes out from one point on the surface of
the illumination source irradiates on the mask as parallel
light. After the diffraction by the mask, divergent light
waves are formed. The near-field electromagnetic wave
after mask is represented as E ¼ ½Ex ; Ey ; Ez  ¼ Oðx; yÞEi .
Here, Ei is the polarization state of the point source i,
and Oðx; yÞ is the mask transmittance function. When propa-
gated to the projection lens, Ez component cannot reach the
enter-pupil as the propagation distance is much larger than
the wave length, namely far-field propagation. Therefore,
coordinate (f; g), and the diffraction field [Ex ; Ey ] is also
associated with the coordinates and polarization state of the
source. Matrix (Fij ) is a coordinate transformation matrix,
which represents the coordinate transformation from exit-
pupil to the image plane.
To establish the vector model, we need to define the
global coordinate system and the local coordinate system.
The global coordinate system is the spatial-domain coordi-
nates (x; y; z), same as scalar imaging model, and the local
coordinate system is defined along the propagation direction
of the light, as the wave vector k, with the other x and y

Object plane Enter- pupil Pupil Ex-pupil Image plane

g y g y

f f x
x
Ei
z
S

Illumination system Mask Projection lens Chip

Fig. 2 The vector imaging diagram of the projection lithographic tool.

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 Xu et al.: Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools

directions in the plane perpendicular to the wave vector k, f is the 2-D normalized Cartesian coordinates of pupil plane,
namely (xl ; yl ; k). The global coordinate system and the f 1 and f 2 represent the pupil coordinate of the mask diffraction
local coordinate system can be converted freely by the spectrum. SðfÞ is the effective distribution of illumination
coordinate transformation matrix F: source on pupil plane, HðfÞ is the spectral transformation
2 3 function of projection lens, OðfÞ is the mask transmittance
" # function, FðfÞ is the coordinate transformation matrix, JðfÞ is
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e003;63;708

Ex
6 7 E the Jones pupil, and * is the complex conjugate.
6 Ey 7 ¼ F · xl
4 5 Eyl
Ez 2.2 Parameterized Representation of Polarization
2 x2l
3 Aberration
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pxffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
l yl
1− −
6 nðnþ n2 −x2l −y2l Þ nðnþ n2 −x2l −y2l Þ 7" # Since the different kinds of polarization aberration coupled
6 7 Exl in Jones pupil, decomposition is needed in further analysis.
¼66 − pxffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
l yl
1−
yl
2
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 7
7 ;
nðnþ n2 −x2l −y2l Þ 5 Eyl
4 nðnþ n2 −x2l −y2l Þ As for Jones matrix decomposition, there are two main-
xl yl
stream ways: polar decomposition16,17 and Pauli decomposi-
n n tion,18–21 as shown in Fig. 3. Polarization aberrations of
(3) lithographic tools have two main parts: diattenuation and
retardance.
where n is the refractive index of the medium between expu- As for the physics pupil from polar decomposition,
pil and image plane, ½Ex ; Ey ; Ez T is the electric field under the transmission and global phases are both scalar terms.
The diattenuation and retardance are complex matrices,
global coordinate system, and ½Exl ; Eyl T is the electric field
which are the main parts of polarization aberration. As the
under local coordinate system. The intensity image caused
rotator term is mostly small in projection lens of lithographic
by one point source is represented as
tools, it can be ignored when analyzing the polarization aber-
ZZ
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e004;63;501

ration. Orientation Zernike polynomials (OZP) are devel-

I s ðx; fÞ ¼ jEwafer ðxÞj2 ¼ ½F · J · E · e−ikðfxþgyÞ  oped to realize the parameterization of diattenuation and
retardance, as shown in Fig. 4. For Pauli pupil, diattenuation
× ½F · J · E · e−ikðfxþgyÞ  dfdg: (4) and retardance have already been projected in two directions,
thus the four terms shown in Fig. 3 are all scalar ones, of
Therefore, we can expand the scalar imaging model into which the Zernike polynomials can realize the parameteriza-
a vector form Ref. 14: tion. To be illustrated, both ways have at least 8 × 37 ¼ 296
ZZZ
EQ-TARGET;temp:intralink-;e005;63;419
complex polynomials and efficiencies to analyze if the
Zernike term up to 37th, which is really a large scale of data.
IðxÞ ¼ SðfÞHðf þ f 1 ÞH  ðf þ f 2 ÞOðf 1 ÞFðf þ f 1 Þ
For the real polarization aberration analysis of lithographic
tools, there are some terms that can be ignored and some
× Jðf þ f 1 ÞE · O ðf 2 ÞF ðf þ f 2 ÞJ ðf þ f 2 ÞE
approximation can be done.
· e−2πiðf 1 −f 2 Þ·x dfdf 1 df 2 ; (5)
3 Method and Analysis
where IðxÞ is the intensity distribution at image plane, x is the With the help of the vector model built in Sec. 2.1, we use
two-dimensional (2-D) spatial-domain Cartesian coordinate, OZP-based parameters and PZP-based parameters described

Fig. 3 The decomposition of Jones pupil.

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 Xu et al.: Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools

Fig. 4 The first 18 OZP terms.

in Sec. 2.2 to test the CDE, PE, and NILS of imaging to ana-
lyze the imaging distortion introduced by different kinds of
polarization aberration.
3.1 Orientation Zernike Polynomial-Based
Polarization Aberration Analysis
For each type of polarization aberration, such as diattenua-
tion and retardance presented by OZP, with given coefficient
values, a specific Jones pupil can be generated. Take the
Jones pupil into the vector imaging model that has already
been built as Eq. (5), we can calculate the CDE, PE, and
NILS. Therefore, we can analyze the influence of imaging
distortion by different terms of different kinds of polarization
aberrations, which is of great significance to guide the pro-
jection lens design. The analysis process is shown in Fig. 5.
Here, OZi represents the OZP term, and Ci represents the
coefficients of OZi . OZP can synthesize specific diattenua-
tion and retardance, by the control variable method, we can
realize the polarization imaging sensitivity analysis of dia-
ttenuation and retardance.

Diattenuation
CDE
CiOZi Generated Model Methology
1 2
Jones
Image PE
3 4
Retardance NILS

Fig. 5 OZP-based polarization aberration analysis process.

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 Xu et al.: Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools

y
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 x
21 22 23 24 25

(a) (b)

Fig. 6 (a) Schematic diagram and (b) field points of a projection lens example in the lithographic tools.

Fig. 7 Jones pupil of projection lens in the lithographic tool.

Scalar Transmission Global phase

Diattenuation Rotation (degree) Retardance (degree)

Fig. 8 Physical pupil after polar decomposition of Jones pupil.

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 Xu et al.: Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools

3.1.1 Simulation of polar decomposition and orienta-
tion zernike polynomial generating Jones pupil
For a Jones pupil under a certain view point, each point on
the pupil plane has a Jones matrix that represents the polari-
zation aberration of this point. Implement polar decomposi-
tion at each point and the same set of parameters of all points
synthesizes a physical pupil. We use an optical projection
lens with coated optical elements designed by CodeV as
shown in Fig. 6(a) as an example to run the simulation.
The projection system is rotationally symmetric along the
optical axis, and 25 field points were chosen to analyze
the system as shown in Fig. 6(b).
The NA of this projection lens is 1.15, and CodeV can
track the optics emitted to the final imaging surface and out-
put Jones matrix parameters related to the polarization of
each ray, which constitutes Jones pupil. Figure 7 shows
the Jones pupil of field point 3 for the projection lens,
and Fig. 8 shows the polar decomposition result, namely
physical pupil. What needs to be illustrated is that the
Jones pupil is extracted directly from CodeV, which is not
the “complete” Jones matrix that does not contain the apod-
ization term. It can be seen from the upper-left part in Fig. 8,
the “scalar transmission” term is only the scalar part of dia-
ttenuaion. Without apodization term, the lowest transmission
is in the center.
Polar decomposition ignores the circular diattenuation
term, thus there is a certain error after decomposition. Yet
the circular diattenuation characteristics of projection lens
of lithographic tools are small, it can be ignored. The
reconstruction error is shown in Fig. 9.
As for OZP parameterization method, one OZP term with
a certain coefficient can generate a Jones pupil. For separate

Fig. 9 The reconstruction error of polar decomposition.

Fig. 10 The Jones pupil with diattenuation generated by OZ5 .

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 Xu et al.: Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools

diattenuation, Jones pupil elements are all real. And for

retardance only, the imaginary parts of Jones pupil have rota-
tion relationship, and the real component includes diagonal
elements. Figs. 10 and 11 show the diattenuation, and retard-
ance generated by OZ5, as shown in Fig. 12.

3.1.2 Simulation of imaging distortion

As for diattenuation, we choose the OZP up to ninth order,
which is 18 terms. By changing the weight of coefficients,
we can analyze the imaging distortion caused by certain OZP
diattenuation. Figure 13 shows some simulation results of the
intensity distribution curve. The weight of the polynomial C
takes the value from 0 to 1, respectively, corresponding to
different color curves in the figure. The conclusion can be
drawn from this series of simulations that diattenuation gen-
erated by OZP has influence on the CD and NILS but has no
effect on PE.
Set weight value C 0.1, we can obtain influence on im-
aging caused by each polynomial, as the first nine order
terms are shown in Fig. 14, with OZP as the abscissa, dis-
tortion value as an ordinate. The blue line represents positive
OZP as OZ1 to OZ9 , and the red line represents the negative
direction of OZP as OZ−1 to OZ−9 . From the simulation
results, we can get that diattenuation generated by OZ1 and
OZ4 has significant effects on CDE but no effect on PE.
As for retardance, we did the analysis in the same way
as diattenuation, and Figs. 15 and 16 show the simulation
results. From the simulation results, we can get that retard-
ance generated by OZ−2, OZ−3 , OZ−7 , and OZ−8 have
significant effects on PE but no effect on CDE.
3.2 Pauli–Zernike Polynomials-Based Polarization
Aberration Analysis
Since each term in Pauli pupil is scalar, the real part and
imaginary part of Pauli pupil can be parameterized be
Zernike coefficients directly. Given a series of coefficient
values, Pauli–Zernike polynomials (PZP) will generate
a specific pupil Jones. Take the Jones pupil into the
Fig. 12 The OZP term OZ5 .
polarization imaging model, we can analyze the imaging
distortion as OZP-based way. The diagram of the process
is shown in Fig. 17. Different from OZP-based way, the dia-
ttenuation and retardance are generated by two parts here.
Here, Rð.Þ represents the real part, and Ið:Þ represents the
imaginary part.
The same as polar decomposition, take the Pauli decom-
position of each point on the pupil so that the same coeffi-
cient of each point will form a Pauli pupil term. Figure 18 is
the Pauli pupil after Pauli decomposition of the Jones pupil
shown in Fig. 7, which is calculated according to the Pauli
decomposition shown in Fig. 3. Here, the real part of a1 ∕a0
and a2 ∕a0 , Reða1 ∕a0 Þ and Reða2 ∕a0 Þ, represents the dia-
ttenuation along the X∕Y direction and 45 deg/135 deg direc-
tion separately, and the imaginary part of a1 ∕a0 and a2 ∕a0 ,
Imða1 ∕a0 Þ and Imða2 ∕a0 Þ, represents the retardanve along
the X∕Y direction and 45 deg/135 deg direction separately.
As the circular diattenuation and circular retardance,
namely the real part and imaginary part of (a3 ∕a0 ),
Reða3 ∕a0 Þ and Imða3 ∕a0 Þ, in the real projection lens are

Fig. 11 The Jones pupil with retardance generated by OZ5 .

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 Xu et al.: Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools

m=-1;n=1,OZ3 m=-1;n=1,OZ-3
m=-1;n=1;OZ-3
0.4 0.4
c=0 c=0
c=0
0.35 c=0.2 0.35 =0.2
cc=0.2
c=0.4 c=0.4
c=0.4
0.3 c=0.6 0.3 cc=0.6
=0.6
c=0.8 c=0.8
c=0.8

Intensity
Intensity c=1
0.25 0.25 cc=1
=1
0.2 0.2

0.15 0.15

0.1 0.1

0.05 0.05
-50 0 50 -50 0 50
x x

m=0;n=2;OZ4
m=0;n=2,OZ4 m=0;n=2;OZ-4
m=0;n=2,OZ-4
0.4 0.4
c=0
c=0 c=0
c=0
0.35 c=0.2
c=0.2 =0.2
cc=0.2
0.35
c=0.4
c=0.4 c=0.4
c=0.4
0.3 c=0.6
c=0.6 0.3 =0.6
cc=0.6
c=0.8
c=0.8 c=0.8
c=0.8
Intensity

Intensity
0.25 cc=1
=1 0.25 cc=1
=1

0.2 0.2

0.15 0.15

0.1 0.1

0.05 0.05
-50 0 50 -50 0 50
x x
Fig. 13 Simulation results of intensity distribution curve including diattenuation of OZ3 and OZ4 .

4 ×10-4
1
+OZ
-OZ 0
3 0.5
-4
CDE

NILS

2 0
PE

-8

1 -0.5 -12

0 -1 -14
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
OZ OZ OZ
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 14 Simulation results of (a) CDE, (b) PE, and (c) NILS caused by diattenuation of OZP.

always small, they can be ignored when we analysis the
polarization aberration of lithographic tools. Figure 19 shows
the ignorant error.
We ran the simulation of first nine order PZP for each type
of polarization aberration. The results of diattenuation analy-
sis are shown in Figs. 20 and 21, respectively. In Fig. 20, the
left column shows the diattenuation generated by Rða1 ∕a0 Þ,
which is along the x∕y direction, whereas the right column
shows the diattenuation generated by Rða2 ∕a0 Þ, which is
along the 45 deg/135 deg direction. It can be seen from
the figures that the diattenuation generated by PZ1 and PZ4
along the x∕y direction has significant effects on CDE.
As for retardance, simulations were done in the same way,
and Figs. 22 and 23 show the results. According to the

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 Xu et al.: Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools

m=-1;n=1;OZ3
m=-1;n=1,OZ3 m=-1;n=1;OZ-3
m=-1;n=1,OZ-3
0.4
0.4 0.4
0.4
c=0 cc=0
=0
0.35
0.35 c=0.2 0.35
0.35 c=0.2
c=0.2
c=0.4 cc=0.4
=0.4
0.3
0.3 c=0.6 0.3
0.3 c=0.6
c=0.6
Intensity

Intensity
c=0.8 cc=0.8
=0.8
Intensity

Intensity
0.25
0.25 c=1 0.25
0.25 c=1
c=1
0.2
0.2 0.2
0.2

0.15
0.15 0.15
0.15

0.1
0.1 0.1
0.1

0.05 0.05
0.05 0.05
-50 0
-50 0 5050 -50
-50 0
0 50
50
x x
x x

m=2;n=2;OZ5
m=2;n=2,OZ5 m=2;n=2;OZ-5
m=2;n=2,OZ-5
0.4 0.4
0.4 0.4
cc=0
=0 c=0
c=0
0.35
0.35 cc=0.2
=0.2 0.35 c=0.2
c=0.2
0.35
cc=0.4
=0.4 c=0.4
c=0.4
0.3
0.3 cc=0.6
=0.6 0.3
0.3 c=0.6
c=0.6
c=0.8

Intensity
cc=0.8
=0.8 c=0.8
Intensity
Intensity

Intensity
0.25
0.25 cc=1
=1 0.25
0.25 c=1
c=1

0.2
0.2 0.2
0.2

0.15
0.15 0.15
0.15

0.1
0.1 0.1
0.1

0.05
0.05 0.05
0.05
-50
-50 00 50
50 -50
-50 00 5050
xx x
x
Fig. 15 Simulation results of intensity distribution curve including retardance of OZ3 and OZ5 .

1 ×10-4
2
0
0.5 1
-4
0
CDE
CDE

NILS

0
PE

-1 -8

-0.5 -12
-2

-1 -3 -14
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
OZ OZ OZ
(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 16 Simulation results of (a) CDE, (b) PE, and (c) NILS caused by retardance of OZP.

simulation results, retardance generated by PZ3 and PZ6 imaging distortion caused by polarization aberration as
along the x∕y direction has significant effects on CDE, Table 1 shows. Both OZP-based method and PZP-based
and retardance generated by PZ3 along the x∕y direction method carried out the similar impact character of
has effects on PE too. different kinds of polarization aberration. The diattenuation
generated by even order terms of Zernike polynomials
3.3 Compare and Discussion has effects on CDE, and retardance generated by
After enough simulations of different coefficients odd order terms of Zernike polynomials has effects
value including higher order terms, we concluded the on PE.

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 Xu et al.: Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools

R(a1/a0)
Diattenuation
R(a2/a0)
1 Methodology
CDE
Generated Model
Pauli-Zernike 2
Jones
Image PE
3 4
I(a1/a0)
NILS
Retardance
I(a2/a0)

Fig. 17 PZP-based polarization aberration analysis process.

Fig. 18 Pauli pupil after Pauli decomposition of Jones pupil in Fig. 7.

Fig. 19 The reconstruction error of Pauli decomposition with circular diattenuation and circular retard-
ance ignored.

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 Xu et al.: Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools

m=-1; n=1;PZ3
m=-1;n=1;PZ3
m=-1;n=1,PZ3
m=-1;n=1;PZ3
m =-1;n=1;PZ3
0.4
0.4 0.4
c=0
c=0
0.35
0.35 c=0.2
c=0.2 0.35
c
c=0.4
=0.4
0.3
0.3 c
c=0.6
=0.6 0.3
Intensity
Intensity

Intensity
c
c=0.8
=0.8
Intensity 0.25
0.25 c
c=1
=1 0.25

0.2
0.2 0.2

0.15
0.15 0.15

0.1 0.1
0.1
0.05 0.05
0.05
-50-50 00 50
50 -50 0 50
x
x xx

m=0;n=2;PZ4
m=0;n=2,PZ4 m=0;n=2;PZ4
m=0;n=2,PZ4
0.4 0.4
0.4 0.4
c=0c=0 c=0
c=0
0.35
0.35 c
c=0.2
=0.2
c=0.2 0.35 c
c=0.2
=0.2
c=0.2
0.35
c=0.4
c=0.4 c=0.4
c=0.4
0.3
0.3 c
c=0.6
=0.6
c=0.6 0.3
0.3 c
c=0.6
=0.6
c=0.6
c=0.8
c=0.8
Intensity
Intensity
c=0.8
c=0.8
Intensity

Intensity
Intensity
Intensity

0.25
0.25 c
c=1c=1
=1 0.25
0.25 cc=1
c=1
=1

0.2
0.2 0.2
0.2

0.15
0.15 0.15
0.15

0.1
0.1 0.1
0.1

0.05 0.05
0.05
0.05
-50
-50-50 000 50
5050 -50-50 00 50
50
xx xx

Fig. 20 Simulation results of intensity distribution curve including diattenuation of PZ3 and PZ4 .

×10-4
4 1
R(a1/a0) R(a1/a0)
R(a2/a0) R(a2/a0) 0
3 0.5
-4 R(a1/a0)
R(a2/a0)
CDE

NILS

2 0
PE

-8

1 -0.5 -12

0 -1 -14
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
PZ PZ PZ
(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 21 Simulation results of (a) CDE, (b) PE, and (c) NILS caused by diattenuation of PZ.

4 Conclusion by CDE, PE, and NILS caused by diattenuation and retard-

In this paper, we present a vector polarization imaging
model, which is the basis of the polarization analysis in
the lithography tools. Two ways of parameterization,
OZP-based method and PZP-based method, are introduced,
which are the effective means of lens design guidance. Based
on the established vector model, imaging distortion assessed
ance in different parameterization methods are completely
analyzed and compared. The simulation results show that
different types of polarization aberrations introduce different
kinds of distortions in different levels. The analysis results in
this paper provide meaningful guidance for the projection
lens design of lithographic tools.

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 Xu et al.: Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools

m=-1;n=1;PZ3
m=-1;n=1,PZ3 m=-1;n=1;PZ3
m=-1;n=1,PZ3
0.4
0.4 0.4
0.4
c=0 c=0
c=0
0.35
0.35 c=0.2 0.35
0.35 =0.2
cc=0.2
c=0.4 c=0.4
c=0.4
0.3
0.3 c=0.6 0.3
0.3 =0.6
cc=0.6
Intensity c=0.8

Intensity
c=0.8
c=0.8
Intensity
0.25
0.25 c=1 0.25
0.25 =1
cc=1
0.2
0.2 0.2
0.2

0.15
0.15 0.15
0.15

0.1 0.1
0.1 0.1
0.05 0.05
0.05 0.05
-50
-50 00 50
50 -50
-50 0 0 50 50
x
x x

m=-2;n=2;PZ6
m=-2;n=2,PZ6 m=-2;n=2;PZ6
m=-2;n=2,PZ6
0.4 0.4
0.4 0.4
c=0
c=0 c=0
c=0
0.35
0.35 c=0.2
c=0.2 0.35 =0.2
cc=0.2
0.35
c=0.4
c=0.4 c=0.4
c=0.4
0.3
0.3 c=0.6
c=0.6 0.3
0.3 =0.6
cc=0.6
c=0.8 c=0.8
c=0.8

Intensity
c=0.8
Intensity

0.25
0.25 c=1
c=1 0.25
0.25 cc=1
=1

0.2
0.2 0.2
0.2

0.15
0.15 0.15
0.15

0.1
0.1 0.1
0.1

0.05
0.05 0.05
0.05
-50
-50 00 5050 -50
-50 00 5050
xx x
x
Fig. 22 Simulation results of intensity distribution curve including retardance of PZ3 and PZ6 .

I(a1/a0) I(a1/a0) I(a1/a0)

I(a2/a0) I(a2/a0) I(a2/a0)

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 23 Simulation results of (a) CDE, (b) PE, and (c) NILS caused by retardance of PZ.

Table 1 Conclusion of polarization analysis.

Diattenuation Retardance

OZP PZP-R(a1 ∕a0 ) OZ PZP-I(a2 ∕a0 )

Odd Even Odd Even Odd Even Odd Even

CDE — 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, . . . — 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, . . . —

PE — — −2, −3, −7, −8, −14, −15, 3, 8, 15, 24, 35, . . .

−23, −24, −34, . . .

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 Xu et al.: Polarization aberration analysis in lithographic tools
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Hubei Provincial Natural
Science Foundation of China (2018CFB220), the Open Fund
of Hubei Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission
and Manufacturing Engineering at Wuhan University of
Science and Technology (2017A11), and the Youth
Foundation of Wuhan University of Science and Technology
(2017xz005).
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Shuang Xu is a lecturer at Wuhan University of Science and
Technology (WUST). She received her BS and PhD degrees in
physics and engineering from Huazhong University of Science and
Technology in 2011 and 2016, respectively. Her current research
interests include optical metrology, holography, nanoscale fabrication
and measurement, and image technology.
Bo Tao is a lecturer at WUST. He received his PhD in engineering
from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2014.
His current research interests include optical metrology, photoelastics
of materials, stress measurement of lens, and optical design.
Yongxing Guo is an assistant professor at WUST. He received his
PhD in engineering from Wuhan University of Technology in 2014.
His current research interests include optical metrology, optical fiber
sensing, and optical instruments.
Gongfa Li is a professor at WUST, senior member of Chinese
mechanical engineering society, mechanical engineering association
of Hubei province, and Hubei’s artificial intelligence society. His
current research interests include optical instruments, artificial intelli-
gence, and image and video technology.
August 2019 • Vol. 58(8)