In EUV lithography, resolution enhancement techniques are applied for manufacturing and also studied actively to improve resolution. Among them, PSM is one of the key technique to improve the resolution limit in the conventional lithography. In this study, we investigated the novel EUV absorber material regarding to imaging properties and patterning process. In simulation tool PROLITH, the reflectivity of novel absorber material PSM was about 9%. As a result, this PSM structure shows better normalized image log slope(NILS) and image contrast. In addition, new PSM structure shows better process friendly properties such as etch rate and PSM profile compared to the conventional Rubased PSM that is currently being actively studied.
Recently, the development of semiconductor process for 14nm node and beyond is in progress. The mask-making
process demands higher resolution and CD accuracy to meet requirements. Current conventional ArF PSM has several
problems such as higher 3D effect and higher loading effect due to the thicker film. These problems cause the CD
performance degradation.
This study is about the manufacturing of advance ArF PSM, which has thinner phase shift layer and higher etch rate Cr
absorber film. The thickness of phase shift film is less than 60nm and the total etch-time for the Cr absorber film is
reduced more than 30%.
The mask CD performance of this new blank was evaluated in terms of CD uniformity, CD linearity, pattern resolution,
and loading effect and so on. Adapting to this new blank, we can achieve better CD performance by reducing the loading
effect. In addition, the chemical durability and ArF exposure durability were also improved.
In conclusion, the mask-making process margin was extended by using this new blank, and it is expected that we can
achieve the required specifications for 14nm node and beyond.
For high quality products in the semiconductor and photomask industries, exposure wavelength has been shortening
from i-line to ArF to embody the high resolution as critical dimension (CD) shrinkage and the specifications have been
restricted. However, a new defect issue called haze has appeared that is shortening the wavelength. This defect is caused
by the photoreaction of chemical residues exposed to SO42-, NH4+ and other chemicals. Accordingly, in this paper we
investigated the generation of haze in thin film materials.
For fabrication of various thin films, the materials which were metal, compound material without nitrogen, and
compound material with nitrogen, were deposited on a quartz substrate using sputtering. Then, we chemically treated the
thin film materials using various conditions including sulfuric peroxide mixture (SPM) and standard cleaning (SC-1).
First, the concentration of ions on the thin film materials was measured using ion chromatography (IC) analysis. Second,
haze defects were inspected after exposure in order to evaluate the difference in haze generation on the thin film
materials. Also, we investigated the numbers and shape of the occurrences of haze.
The haze issue has gradually increased in the 65 nm node technology and beyond. This issue has been reporting that it
is caused by chemical reaction among ions like SO42-, NH4+ and aromatic hydrocarbon compounds (AHCs) such as
butylated hydroxy toluene (BHT), toluene and etc. on mask by 193 nm laser in general. This haze growth causes defects
with accumulation of exposure energy. Finally, it decreases the lifetime of photomask with an increase in defects. The
source of this haze is generated from storage materials as well as chemical residue in the photomask process. Therefore,
we investigated the adsorption rate of airborne molecular contamination (AMC) on each layer with storage materials
which were assumed to be the source of the haze.
We analyzed adsorbed ions and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on each layer to verify the effects of storage
materials for some storage periods by automatic thermal desorption gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (ATD
GC/MS) and ion chromatography (IC). Also, we investigated the contact angle of each layer as AMC concentration of
storage materials. From the experimental results, we confirmed that the adsorption rate of AMC was different on each
layer as storage materials.
Positive chemically amplified resist (CAR) is widely used because of its benefit to high resolution in the
semiconductor industry. Recent numerous studies have reported that resist pattern error such as resist scum and adhesion
fail at the interface between substrate and positive CAR is caused by substrate dependency. Hence resist pattern error
must be minimized. In this study we have observed the phenomena at the positive CAR coated mask blanks. And then
we applied various surface treatments to the Cr film to minimize resist pattern error.
Firstly, resist pattern error was occurred by the substrate dependency in the positive CAR coated mask blanks. We
have investigated the root causes of this pattern error, we found that nitrogen radical and OH radical in the Cr film could
combine with proton in the positive CAR easily. So various surface treatments were applied to minimize detrimental
effects of substrate dependency to the positive CAR. And the behavior of substrate dependency was observed by various
analyses to verify the effect of surface treatment method. The results showed that substrate dependency could be
controlled by surface treatment in the positive CAR coated mask blanks.
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