Stochastic limitations to EUV lithography

Stochastic-induced roughness continues to be a major concern in the implementation of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography for semiconductor high-volume manufacturing, potentially limiting product yield or lithography throughput or both. For this reason considerable effort has been made in the last 10 years to characterize, understand, and reduce stochastic-induced roughness of post- lithography and post-etch features. Despite these efforts, far too little progress has been made in reducing the effects of stochastics, such as linewidth roughness (LWR), line-edge roughness (LER), local critical dimension uniformity (LCDU), and stochastic defectivity.