Fast rigorous modeling of photoresist in lithography

The fast rigorous model (FRM) is a first principles solver based on sequential simulations of photochemical reactions in photoresists. We report the evaluation of FRM relative to compact models (CM1) for NTD OPC model accuracy. We demonstrate equivalent or better accuracy to CM1 when FRM is combined with a CM1 model of the same composition. In the case of CTR to FRM comparison, FRM is 34% more accurate in calibration and prediction on average across 20 testcases. FRM is 5% more predictive than the most complex CM1 modelform tested with similar calibration accuracy. FRM supplemented with limited CM1 terms provides better verification accuracy for SRAF printing and hotspot detection. Further, the input data needed to train the FRM model in order to achieve high predictive accuracy is a fraction (1-5%) of that needed by more complex CM1 modelforms. Finally, we show through the Akaike Information Criteria method that FRM is more predictive than an equivalent CM1 model based on the degrees of freedom in the modelform and quantity of data available.