Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Advances in Low-Defect Multilayers for EUVL Mask Blanks

Conference ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1117/12.472287· OSTI ID:15003025
Low-defect multilayer coatings are required to fabricate mask blanks for Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL). The mask blanks consist of high reflectance E W multilayers on low thermal expansion substrates. A defect density of 0.0025 printable defects/cm{sup 2} for both the mask substrate and the multilayer is required to provide a mask blank yield of 60%. Current low defect multilayer coating technology allows repeated coating-added defect levels of 0.05/cm{sup 2} for defects greater than 90 nm polystyrene latex sphere (PSL) equivalent size for lots of 20 substrates. Extended clean operation of the coating system at levels below 0.08/cm{sup 2} for 3 months of operation has also been achieved. Two substrates with zero added defects in the quality area have been fabricated, providing an existence proof that ultra low defect coatings are possible. Increasing the ion source-to-target distance from 410 to 560 mm to reduce undesired coating of the ion source caused the defect density to increase to 0.2/cm{sup 2}. Deposition and etching diagnostic witness substrates and deposition pinhole cameras showed a much higher level of ion beam spillover (ions missing the sputter target) than expected. Future work will quantify beam spillover, and test designs to reduce spillover, if it is confirmed to be the cause of the increased defect level. The LDD system will also be upgraded to allow clean coating of standard format mask substrates. The upgrade will confirm that the low defect process developed on Si wafers is compatible with the standard mask format 152 mm square substrates, and will provide a clean supply of EUVL mask blanks needed to support development of EUVL mask patterning processes and clean mask handling technologies.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
US Department of Energy (US)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
15003025
Report Number(s):
UCRL-JC-148057
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

EUVL Mask Blank Repair
Conference · Wed May 22 00:00:00 EDT 2002 · OSTI ID:15002369

Reticle blanks for extreme ultraviolet lithography: Ion beam sputter deposition of low defect density Mo/Si multilayers
Conference · Mon Jun 24 00:00:00 EDT 1996 · OSTI ID:378644

Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography - Reflective Mask Technology
Conference · Tue May 09 00:00:00 EDT 2000 · OSTI ID:791415