Simulation Research on the Thermal Effects in Dipolar Illuminated Lithography

Abstract

The prediction of thermal effects in lithography projection objective plays a significant role in the real-time dynamic compensation of thermal aberrations. For the illuminated lithography projection objective, this paper applies finite element analysis to get the temperature distribution, surface deformation and stress data. To improve the efficiency, a temperature distribution function model is proposed to use for the simulation of thermal aberrations with the help of optical analysis software CODE V. SigFit is approved integrated optomechanical analysis software with the feature of calculating OPD effects due to temperature change, and it is utilized to prove the validation of the temperature distribution function. Results show that the impact of surface deformation and stress is negligible compared with the refractive index change; astigmatisms and 4-foil aberrations dominate in the thermal aberration, about 1.7 λ and 0.45 λ. The system takes about one hour to reach thermal equilibrium and the contrast of the imaging of dense lines get worse as time goes on.