A method for in-situ wave front detection within an inspection system is disclosed. The method includes generating light with a light source and directing the light to a stage-level reflective mask grating structure disposed on a mask stage. The method includes directing light reflected from the stage-level reflective structure to a detector-level mask structure disposed in a plane of a detector and then collecting, with an optical element, light reflected from the detector-level mask structure. The method includes forming a pupil image on the detector and laterally shifting the stage-level reflective mask, with the mask stage, across a grating period of the stage-level reflective mask grating structure to provide phase reconstruction for lateral shearing interferometry. The method includes selectively impinging light reflected from the optical element on the one or more sensors of the detector.

A method for in-situ wave front detection within an inspection system is disclosed. The method includes generating light with a light source and directing the light to a stage-level reflective mask grating structure disposed on a mask stage. The method includes directing light reflected from the stage-level reflective structure to a detector-level mask structure disposed in a plane of a detector and then collecting, with an optical element, light reflected from the detector-level mask structure. The method includes forming a pupil image on the detector and laterally shifting the stage-level reflective mask, with the mask stage, across a grating period of the stage-level reflective mask grating structure to provide phase reconstruction for lateral shearing interferometry. The method includes selectively impinging light reflected from the optical element on the one or more sensors of the detector.

There is provided a system and method of a method of mask inspection, comprising: obtaining a first image representative of at least part of the mask; applying a printing threshold on the first image to obtain a second image; estimating a contour for each structural element of interest (SEI) of a group of SEIs, and extracting a set of attributes characterizing the contour, giving rise to a group of contours corresponding to the group of SEIs and respective sets of attributes associated therewith; for each given contour, identifying, among the remaining contours in the group of contours, one or more reference contours similar to the given contour, by comparing between the respective sets of attributes associated therewith; and measuring a deviation between the given contour and each reference contour thereof, giving rise to one or more measured deviations indicative of whether a defect is present.

An EUV lighting device for metrology and inspection of an EUV mask in an EUV exposure process of a semiconductor device manufacturing process includes: an EUV light source for outputting EUV light with a wavelength ranging from 5 nm to 15 nm; and a multilayer reflection zone plate having an EUV reflection multilayer film, which is a planar substrate, and a zone plate pattern. The EUV lighting device radiates EUV light output from the EUV light source to the multilayer reflection zone plate, acquires 1.sup.st diffraction light reflected, and creates EUV illumination light.

The inventive concept provides a mask treating apparatus. The mask treating apparatus includes a support unit configured to support and rotate a mask, the mask having a first pattern within a plurality of cells thereof and a second pattern outside regions of the plurality of cells; a heating unit including a laser irradiation module and a moving module, the laser irradiation module having a laser irradiator for irradiating a laser light to the second pattern, the moving module configured to change a position of the laser irradiation module; and a controller configured to control the support unit and the heating unit, and wherein when a treating position is divided into four equal parts from a first quadrant to a fourth quadrant based on a center of the mask, the laser irradiator is positioned at the fourth quadrant and the first quadrant in a direction linearly moving from a standby position to the treating position, positioned at the third quadrant in a direction which is perpendicular to the fourth quadrant, and positioned at the second quadrant in a direction which is perpendicular to the first quadrant, and wherein the controller controls a rotation of the support unit so the second pattern is positioned at the fourth quadrant.

To ascertain an image of an object which emerges when the object is illuminated with illumination light from a partly coherent light source with a target illumination setting having an illumination-side numerical aperture NA_illu and an imaging-side numerical aperture NA_detection, the following procedure is performed: initially, a section of the object is illuminated with illumination light from a coherent measurement light source with an illumination setting having an illumination-side numerical aperture NA_i, which is at least as large as NA_detection. Then, a diffraction image of the illuminated section is recorded. This is implemented by way of a spatially resolved detection in a far field detection plane of a diffraction intensity of illumination light diffracted by the illuminated section with a recording-side numerical aperture NA by way of a plurality of sensor pixels. This recording-side aperture must be greater than or equal to the maximum of NA_illu and NA_detection. From the recorded diffraction image data, the image of the section of the object for the target illumination setting is then ascertained from the recorded diffraction image data. An apparatus for carrying out the method comprises a measurement light source for providing the illumination light and a spatially resolving detector, arranged in the detection plane, for recording the diffraction image. This yields a method and an apparatus by means of which a flexible image ascertainment of sections of the object is facilitated, in particular for different target illumination settings.

To ascertain an image of an object which emerges when the object is illuminated with illumination light from a partly coherent light source with a target illumination setting having an illumination-side numerical aperture NA_illu and an imaging-side numerical aperture NA_detection, the following procedure is performed: initially, a section of the object is illuminated with illumination light from a coherent measurement light source with an illumination setting having an illumination-side numerical aperture NA_i, which is at least as large as NA_detection. Then, a diffraction image of the illuminated section is recorded. This is implemented by way of a spatially resolved detection in a far field detection plane of a diffraction intensity of illumination light diffracted by the illuminated section with a recording-side numerical aperture NA by way of a plurality of sensor pixels. This recording-side aperture must be greater than or equal to the maximum of NA_illu and NA_detection. From the recorded diffraction image data, the image of the section of the object for the target illumination setting is then ascertained from the recorded diffraction image data. An apparatus for carrying out the method comprises a measurement light source for providing the illumination light and a spatially resolving detector, arranged in the detection plane, for recording the diffraction image. This yields a method and an apparatus by means of which a flexible image ascertainment of sections of the object is facilitated, in particular for different target illumination settings.

There is provided a system and method for mask inspection, comprising: obtaining a plurality of images, each representative of a respective part of the mask; generating a CD map of the mask comprising a plurality of composite values of a CD measurement of a POI respectively derived from the plurality of images, comprising, for each given image: dividing the given image into a plurality of sections; searching for the POI in the plurality of sections, giving rise to a set of sections, each with presence of at least one of the POI therein; for each section, obtaining a value of the CD measurement using a printing threshold, giving rise to a set of values of the CD measurement corresponding to the set of sections; and combining the set of values to a composite value of the CD measurement corresponding to the given image.

A system of measuring an image of a pattern in a high NA scanning-type extreme ultra-violet (EUV) mask is disclosed. The system may include a light source generating an EUV light; an toroidal mirror; an flat mirror allowing light, which is reflected by the toroidal mirror, to be incident into the mask; an beam splitter; a light detection part; an anamorphic zone-plate lens focusing a transmitted portion of a light emitted from the beam splitter on the mask; a stage; and an anamorphic photo sensor, which is configured to measure an energy of a reflected portion of the coherent EUV light, is composed of a detector array, and has different sizes from each other in horizontal and vertical directions of an incidence surface of the detector array.

A system of measuring an image of a pattern in a high NA scanning-type extreme ultra-violet (EUV) mask is disclosed. The system may include a light source generating an EUV light; an toroidal mirror; an flat mirror allowing light, which is reflected by the toroidal mirror, to be incident into the mask; an beam splitter; a light detection part; an anamorphic zone-plate lens focusing a transmitted portion of a light emitted from the beam splitter on the mask; a stage; and an anamorphic photo sensor, which is configured to measure an energy of a reflected portion of the coherent EUV light, is composed of a detector array, and has different sizes from each other in horizontal and vertical directions of an incidence surface of the detector array.