To avoid expensive immersion lithography and to further use existing dry tools for critical contact layer lithography at 4Xnm DRAM nodes the application of altPSM is investigated and compared to attPSM. Simulations and experiments with several test masks showed that by use of altPSM with suitable 0°/180° coloring and assist placement 30nm smaller contacts can be resolved through pitch with sufficient process windows (PW). This holds for arrays of contacts with variable lengths through short and long side pitches. A further benefit is the lower mask error enhancement factor (MEEF). Nevertheless 3D mask errors (ME) consume benefits in the PW and the assist placement and coloring of the main features (MF) put some constraints on the chip design. An altPSM compatible 4Xnm full-chip layout was realized without loss of chip area. Mask making showed very convincing results with respect to CDU, etch depth uniformity and defectiveness. The printed intra-field CD uniformity was comparable to attPSM despite the smaller target CDs. Room for improvement is identified in OPC accuracy and in automatic assist placement and sizing.