Over the past 30 years there have been many iterations of photolithography system test reticles. These reticles have covered a broad range of applications and quality metrics. Today, many of the basic concepts remain the same, but “classic” systems have not benefited from the many new improvements in reticle design, from both a philosophical and technical content perspective. Simax has gone “Back to the Future” and developed a set of “best methods” for unique test reticles. These reticles go above and beyond the current OEM offerings.

Within the Simax “Reticles Plus”, lithography test reticle set, new concepts and additional functionality are employed to provide the lithography engineer with new tools for their diagnostic toolbox. Furthermore, the design and build time is a matter of weeks, rather than months, and the reticles are cross-platform compatible with all reduction steppers and scanners. 

This “revolution” in classic system test reticle metrology capability is also flexible in that customers can adapt their basic modules to meet specific applications requirements.

The Simax “Test Reticle Plus” Package Advantages

• Simax test reticles can be designed to combine two metrology functions into one reticle, reducing cost and time required to produce test results
• Simax encourages and makes every effort to customize the test reticle such that the reticle’s functionality is maximized for your application
• Our test reticles are not just mainstream ITRS roadmap: they include III-V, MEMS, Photonics, TFH, LED

Additional Benefits

• Each reticle can be used on ASML, Nikon, and Canon systems, allowing cross-platform characterization
• Custom features allow for the characterization of stepper grids, creating absolute references, rather than relative references; this is extremely important when matching multiple systems
• For large area stitching arrays, there are unique CD structures that allow a user to quantify the impact of stepper field overlap with respect to CD control across the stitch boundaries, often observed as “dog bone” or “necking”