Characteristics and issues of haze management in a wafer fabrication environment

Sung Ha Woo; Dae Ho Hwang; Goo Min Jeong; Young Mo Lee; Sang Pyo Kim; Dong Gyu Yim

doi:10.1117/12.2066275

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8 October 2014 Characteristics and issues of haze management in a wafer fabrication environment

Sung Ha Woo, Dae Ho Hwang, Goo Min Jeong, Young Mo Lee, Sang Pyo Kim, Dong Gyu Yim

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Proceedings Volume 9235, Photomask Technology 2014; 923524 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2066275
Event: SPIE Photomask Technology, 2014, Monterey, California, United States

Abstract

The haze nucleation and growth phenomenon on critical photomask surfaces has periodically gained attention as it has significantly impacted wafer printability for different technology nodes over the years. A number of process solutions have been promoted in the semiconductor industry which has been shown to suppress or minimize the propensity for haze formation, but none of these technologies can stop every instance of haze. Fortunately, a novel technology which uses a dry (no chemical effluents) removal system, laser-based, through pellicle process has been reported recently. The technology presented here avoids many of the shortcomings of the wet clean process mentioned previously. The dry clean process extends the life of the photomask; maintains more consistent CD’s, phase, and transmission; avoids adjustment to the exposure dose to account for photomask changes, reduces the number of required inspections and otherwise improves the efficiency and predictability of the lithography cell. We report on the performance of photomask based on a design developed to study the impact of metrology variations on dry clean process. In a first step we focus on basic characteristics: CD variation, phase, Cr/MoSi transmission, pellicle transmission, registration variations. In a second step, we evaluate haze removal and prevention performance and wafer photo margin. Haze removal is studied on the masks for several haze types and various exposure conditions. The results of this study show that some of metrology variation are likely to be a problem at high technology node, and haze removal performance is determined whether the component of haze is remained or not after treatment.

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Sung Ha Woo, Dae Ho Hwang, Goo Min Jeong, Young Mo Lee, Sang Pyo Kim, and Dong Gyu Yim "Characteristics and issues of haze management in a wafer fabrication environment", Proc. SPIE 9235, Photomask Technology 2014, 923524 (8 October 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2066275

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