Substrate measurement recipe design of, or for, a target including a latent image

1. A method comprising:

computing, by a hardware computer system in accordance with one or more parameters of a substrate measurement recipe, measurement with a latent image of a target and measurement with a post-development image corresponding to the latent image, to evaluate a characteristic determined from the computed measurement with the latent image of the target and determined from the computed measurement with the post-development image corresponding to the latent image; and

adjusting the one or more parameters of the substrate measurement recipe and re-performing the computing, until a certain termination condition is satisfied with respect to the characteristic.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing comprises computing a multi-variable cost function, the multi-variable cost function representing a metric characterizing a degree of similarity between the characteristic determined from the computed measurement with the latent image of the target and determined from the computed measurement with the post-development image corresponding to the latent image, the metric being a function of a plurality of design variables that comprise a parameter of the substrate measurement recipe, and the adjusting comprises adjusting one or more variables of the cost function.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic is one or more selected from: overlay, alignment, focus, dose, a measurement signal, an accuracy parameter, a robustness parameter, and/or a detectability parameter.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing comprises simulating the measurement with the latent image of the target and simulating the measurement with the post-development image corresponding to the latent image.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the simulating comprises determining a characteristic of radiation used to measure the target from a parameter of the substrate measurement recipe.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the simulating comprises determining an interaction between radiation and the target of the substrate measurement recipe from a parameter of the substrate measurement recipe.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the latent image comprises a spatial distribution of a characteristic of resist in the resist layer before the resist layer is developed, and/or wherein the latent image comprises variations of thickness, refractive index, and/or extinction coefficient of exposed and unexposed portions of the resist layer.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate measurement recipe comprise a substrate measurement recipe for the latent image of the target and a substrate measurement recipe for the post-development image corresponding to the latent image and the substrate measurement recipe for the latent image of the target has a different measurement beam wavelength, different measurement polarization, and/or different measurement beam spatial or angular distribution, than the substrate measurement recipe for the post-development image corresponding to the latent image.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more parameters comprise a geometric or materials parameter of the target comprising the latent image, and/or wherein the one or more parameters comprise a parameter of measurement of the target comprising the latent image.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic represents detectability of the target comprising the latent image, and/or wherein the characteristic represents stability of a measurement result of the target comprising the latent image, with respect to perturbation.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more parameters are under a constraint that detectability of the target comprising the latent image crosses or equals a threshold, and/or wherein the one or more parameters are under a constraint that stability of a measurement result of the target comprising the latent image with respect to perturbation crosses or equals a threshold.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the target comprising the latent image further comprises a structure under the resist layer.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the termination condition comprises one or more selected from the following: minimization of the characteristic; maximization of the characteristic; reaching a certain number of iterations; reaching a value of the characteristic that crosses or matches a certain threshold value; reaching a certain computation time; or reaching a value of the characteristic within an acceptable error limit.

14. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions recorded therein, the instructions, upon execution by a computer system, configured to cause the computer system to at least:

compute, in accordance with one or more parameters of a substrate measurement recipe, measurement with a latent image of a target and measurement with a post-development image corresponding to the latent image, to evaluate a characteristic determined from the computed measurement with the latent image of the target and determined from the computed measurement with the post-development image corresponding to the latent image; and

adjust the one or more parameters of the substrate measurement recipe and re-perform the computing, until a certain termination condition is satisfied with respect to the characteristic.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the computation comprises computation of a multi-variable cost function, the multi-variable cost function representing a metric characterizing a degree of similarity between the characteristic determined from the computed measurement with the latent image of the target and determined from the computed measurement with the post-development image corresponding to the latent image, the metric being a function of a plurality of design variables that comprise a parameter of the substrate measurement recipe, and the adjustment comprises adjustment of one or more variables of the cost function.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the characteristic is one or more selected from: overlay, alignment, focus, dose, a measurement signal, an accuracy parameter, a robustness parameter, and/or a detectability parameter.

17. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the computation comprises simulation of the measurement with the latent image of the target and simulation of the measurement with the post-development image corresponding to the latent image.

18. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the latent image comprises a spatial distribution of a characteristic of resist in the resist layer before the resist layer is developed, and/or wherein the latent image comprises variations of thickness, refractive index, and/or extinction coefficient of exposed and unexposed portions of the resist layer.

19. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the substrate measurement recipe comprise a substrate measurement recipe for the latent image of the target and a substrate measurement recipe for the post-development image corresponding to the latent image and wherein the substrate measurement recipe for the latent image of the target has a different measurement beam wavelength, different measurement polarization, and/or different measurement beam spatial or angular distribution, than the substrate measurement recipe for the post-development image corresponding to the latent image.

20. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the one or more parameters comprise a geometric or materials parameter of the target comprising the latent image, and/or wherein the one or more parameters comprise a parameter of measurement of the target comprising the latent image.