Fast Evaluation of Aberration-Induced Intensity Distribution in Partially Coherent Imaging Systems by Cross Triple Correlation

We propose a method suitable for the fast calculation and evaluation of aberration-induced intensity distribution in partially coherent imaging systems, such as projection lithographic tools. The method is based on transmission cross coefficient (TCC) decomposition by a general operator, namely cross triple correlation (CTC). By expanding the aberrated pupil function into a Taylor series, the TCC is decomposed into different terms. Each term is further represented as a weighted sum of several CTCs. By exploring the properties of CTC, the aerial image intensity induced by wavefront aberration is calculated quickly and separated clearly from that without aberration. Simulation results and discussion are presented.