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Title: Particle control near reticle and optics using showerhead

Patent ·
OSTI ID:1262617
; ; ; ; ; ; ;

A method and an apparatus to protect a reticle against particles and chemicals in an actinic EUV reticle inspection tool are presented. The method and apparatus utilizes a pair of porous metal diffusers in the form of showerheads to provide a continual flow of clean gas. The main showerhead bathes the reticle surface to be inspected in smoothly flowing, low pressure gas, isolating it from particles coming from surrounding volumes. The secondary showerhead faces away from the reticle and toward the EUV illumination and projection optics, supplying them with purge gas while at the same time creating a buffer zone that is kept free of any particle contamination originating from those optics.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
Assignee:
KLA-Tencor Corporation (Milpitas, CA) Sandia Corporation (Albuquerque, NM)
Patent Number(s):
9,244,368
Application Number:
14/033,929
OSTI ID:
1262617
Resource Relation:
Patent File Date: 2013 Sep 23
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (16)

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Electrostatic mask protection for extreme ultraviolet lithography
  • Moors, Roel; Heerens, Gert-Jan
  • Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures, Vol. 20, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.1446451
journal January 2002
Showerhead-Enhanced Inertial Particle Deposition in Parallel-Plate Reactors journal January 1998
An approach for simulating the transport of spherical particles in a rarefied gas flow via the direct simulation Monte Carlo method journal November 2001
Nonzero-Concentration Boundary Condition for Advection-Diffusion Aerosol-Transport Modeling journal August 2008
Nanoparticle Knudsen layers in gas-filled microscale geometries journal March 2008
Direct simulation Monte Carlo-based expressions for the gas mass flow rate and pressure profile in a microscale tube journal January 2012
Mixing of Stably Stratified Gases in Subsurface Reservoirs: A Comparison of Diffusion Models journal March 2004
Particle-contamination analysis for reticles in carrier inner pods conference April 2008
DSMC-Based Shear-Stress∕Velocity-Slip Boundary Condition for Navier-Stokes Couette-Flow Simulations conference January 2011
EUV reticle thermal management patent September 2002
Extreme ultraviolet reticle protection using gas flow thermophoresis patent April 2006
Gas-introducing system and plasma CVD apparatus patent May 2010
System managing gas flow between chambers of an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography apparatus patent October 2010
Devices and methods for thermophoretic and electrophoretic reduction of particulate contamination of lithographic reticles and other objects patent January 2011
Illumination optical system, exposure apparatus using the same and device manufacturing method patent April 2012

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
42 ENGINEERING