Statistical-noise effect on power spectrum of long-range-correlated line-edge and line-width roughness

We formerly developed the "assembly method" for analyzing the line-edge and line-width roughness (LER/LWR) that has a long-range correlation beyond the conventional analysis limit, as reported in a previous work. In that method, we repeatedly assembled virtual long lines by gathering line segments, which were arbitrarily disposed on actual long lines and by randomly changing their combination and order, permitting the assembled lines to share the same line segments. Then, we obtained the power spectral density (PSD) of the LER/LWR of the assembled lines considering the lines as seamless. We also derived an analytic formula of the assembled-line PSDs for use in the PSD fitting method. This formula agreed very well with experimental PSDs. In this report, we propose guidelines for suppressing the statistical-noise effect on the assembly method for the purpose of accurately analyzing the long-range-correlated LER/LWR. The guidelines will greatly help shed light on the long-range correlation, which causes the variability even in large devices but has long been veiled due to the lack of metrology. (C) 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.3616023]