Extreme ultraviolet carrier-frequency shearing interferometry of a lithographic four-mirror optical system

The phase-shifting point diffraction interferometer (PS/PDI) has recently been developed to address the problem of at-wavelength metrology of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) optical systems. Although extremely accurate, the fact that the PS/PDI is limited to use with coherent EUV sources, such as undulator radiation, is a drawback for its widespread use. An alternative to the PS/PDI, with relaxed coherence requirements, is lateral shearing interferometry (LSI). Here we describe various LSI implementations and demonstrate the use of a cross-grating, carrier-frequency configuration to characterize a large-field 4X-reduction EUV lithography optic. The results obtained are directly compared with PS/PDI measurements. (C) 2000 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-211X(00)12806-9].