Simulation study of decoherence and light intensity uniformization for extreme ultraviolet of uniform light pipe

Abstract

<sec>Free electron laser (FEL) is a high-quality laser source with wavelengths ranging from short-wave X-ray to long-wave infrared ray. Extreme ultra-violet (EUV) radiation at <i>λ</i> = 13.5 nm emitted by FEL can be used in manufacturing integrated circuit, such as EUV lithography exposure and mask defect inspection. However, the high spatial coherence characteristics and similar Gauss intensity profile distribution of FEL source has a negative effect on imaging, and cannot meet the requirements of imaging applications in EUV lithography. In this work, a newly light pipe for decoherence and intensity uniformity in an EUV spectral range is designed through the simulation calculations. The new light pipe consists of two pairs of tilted elements which are symmetrically distributed in the <i>y</i>-<i>z</i> plane and <i>x</i>-<i>z</i> plane, respectively. In this way, the beam transmission divergence in two dimensions can be widened at the same time, and the disturbance of the ray transmission track and spatial phase distribution is increased, so as to achieve the uniformization of light intensity and the reduction of spatial coherence.</sec><sec>The simulation results show that for an EUV Gaussian beam at <i>λ</i> = 13.5nm, with a diameter of 200 μm, and a divergence of 20 mrad, the newly designed light pipe has more significant decoherence and illumination field uniformity than the conventional light pipe structure. When the new light pipe has an inner diameter of 1mm, a total length of not less than 600 mm, and a tilt angle of 10mrad , a basically uniform illumination field can be obtained, the coherence is completely disordered, and the non-uniformity of light intensity distribution in the illumination field decreases to 0.97 from 28.38 achieved by conventional cylindrical light pipe. At the same time, the light power transmission efficiency is about 37.6% and the maximum transmission efficiency is about 44.58%. The uniformity can be further improved by increasing the number of reflections. When the inner diameter and tilted angle of the light pipe are unchanged, the length of the light pipe increases to 1m, the non-uniformity of intensity distribution at the illumination field further decreases to 0.90, and the light power transmission efficiency is about 22.35%. The results show that the newly designed light pipe structure can meet the application requirements of decoherence and improve the uniformity of illumination field at EUV wavelength range, and it has great application prospects in EUV lithography and other imaging applications.</sec>