Proceedings Article | 19 May 2008
Proc. SPIE. 7028, Photomask and Next-Generation Lithography Mask Technology XV
KEYWORDS: Carbon, Lithography, Contamination, Reflectivity, Raman spectroscopy, Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Scanning probe microscopy, Analytical research
As the semiconductor industry requires lithography suitable for 32-nm node, extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) has the potential to provide this capability for the mass fabrication of semiconductor devices. But because an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography exposure system is operated in vacuum, during irradiation by EUV light, hydrocarbons are decomposed in vacuum1-3, for example, by the out-gassing from EUV mask, and contaminate the surface of imaging optics which is coated with Mo/Si multi-layers with carbon. Thus, this contamination not only reduces the reflectivity of the Mo/Si multi-layers of imaging optics and degrades the exposure uniformity, but also degrades the resolution of the imaging optics. In this study, as we examined the volume of the out-gassing and the species from EUV mask after every process for EUV mask production, we will control the carbon contamination of EUV mask.
Keywords: EUV, carbon contamination, reflectance, out-gassing
