Target noise in overlay metrology

We have developed a method for calculating the statistical effects of spatial noise on the overlay measurement extracted from a given overlay target. The method has been applied to two kinds of overlay targets on three process layers, and the new metric, Target Noise, has been shown to correlate well to the random component of Overlay Mark Fidelity. A significant difference in terms of robustness has been observed between AIM targets and conventional Frame-in-Frame targets. The results fit well into the spatial noise hierarchy presented in this paper.