New integrated Monte Carlo code for the simulation of high-resolution scanning electron microscopy images for metrology in microlithography

A new Monte Carlo code is presented that includes among others definition of arbitrary geometries with sub-nanometer resolution, high performance parallel computing capabilities, trapped charge, electric field calculation, electron tracking in electrostatic field, and calculation of 3D dose distributions. These functionalities are efficiently implemented thanks to the coupling of the Monte Carlo simulator with a TCAD environment. Applications shown are the synthesis of SEM linescans and images that focus on the evaluation of the impact of proximity effects and self charging on the quantitative extraction of critical dimensions in dense photoresist structures.