Since completely defect-free masks will be hard to achieve, it is essential to have a good understanding of the printability of the native extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask defects. In this work, we performed a systematic study of native mask defects to understand the defect printability they cause. The multilayer growth over native substrate mask blank defects was correlated to the multilayer growth over regular-shaped defects having similar profiles in terms of their width and height. To model the multilayer growth over the defects, a multilayer growth model based on a level-set technique was used that took into account the tool deposition conditions of the Veeco Nexus ion beam deposition tool. Further, the printability of the characterized native defects was studied at the SEMATECH-Berkeley Actinic Inspection Tool (AIT), an EUV mask-imaging microscope at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Printability of the modeled regular-shaped defects, which were propagated up the multilayer stack using level-set growth model, was studied using defect printability simulations implementing the waveguide algorithm. Good comparison was observed between AIT and the simulation results, thus demonstrating that multilayer growth over a defect is primarily a function of a defect’s width and height, irrespective of its shape.
KEYWORDS: Photomasks, Extreme ultraviolet, Multilayers, Chemical species, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Inspection, Monte Carlo methods, Computer simulations, Waveguides, Transmission electron microscopy
The availability of defect-free masks is considered to be a critical issue for enabling extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) as the next generation technology. Since completely defect-free masks will be hard to achieve, it is essential to have a good understanding of the printability of the native EUV mask defects. In this work, we performed a systematic study of native mask defects to understand the defect printability caused by them. The multilayer growth over native substrate mask blank defects was correlated to the multilayer growth over regular-shaped defects having similar profiles in terms of their width and height. To model the multilayer growth over the defects, a novel level-set multilayer growth model was used that took into account the tool deposition conditions of the Veeco Nexus ion beam deposition tool. The same tool was used for performing the actual deposition of the multilayer stack over the characterized native defects, thus ensuring a fair comparison between the actual multilayer growth over native defects, and modeled multilayer growth over regular-shaped defects. Further, the printability of the characterized native defects was studied with the SEMATECH-Berkeley Actinic Inspection Tool (AIT), an EUV mask-imaging microscope at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Printability of the modeled regular-shaped defects, which were propagated up the multilayer stack using level-set growth model was studied using defect printability simulations implementing the waveguide algorithm. Good comparison was observed between AIT and the simulation results, thus demonstrating that multilayer growth over a defect is primarily a function of a defect’s width and height, irrespective of its shape. This would allow us to predict printability of the arbitrarily-shaped native EUV mask defects in a systematic and robust manner.
KEYWORDS: Finite-difference time-domain method, Photomasks, Chemical species, Transmission electron microscopy, Multilayers, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Extreme ultraviolet, Monte Carlo methods, Atomic force microscopy, Inspection
Availability of defect-free masks is considered to be a critical issue for enabling extreme
ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) as the next generation technology. Since completely defect-free
masks will be hard to achieve, it is essential to have a good understanding of the defect
printability as well as the fundamental aspects of a defect that result in the defects being printed.
In this work, the native mask blank defects were characterized using atomic force microscopy
(AFM) and cross-section transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the defect printability of
the characterized native mask defects was evaluated using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD)
simulations. The simulation results were compared with the through-focus aerial images obtained
at the SEMATECH Actinic Inspection Tool (AIT) at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL)
for the characterized defects. There was a reasonable agreement between the through-focus
FDTD simulation results and the AIT results. To model the Mo/Si multilayer growth over the
native defects, which served as the input for the FDTD simulations, a level-set technique was
used to predict the evolution of the multilayer disruption over the defect. Unlike other models
that assume a constant flux of atoms (of materials to be deposited) coming from a single
direction, this model took into account the direction and incident fluxes of the materials to be
deposited, as well as the rotation of the mask substrate, to accurately simulate the actual
deposition conditions. The modeled multilayer growth was compared with the cross-section
TEM images, and a good agreement was observed between them.
Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) resist outgassing is viewed as one of the factors to be considered in the research and development of EUV resists1-3. Resist outgassing in an EUV exposure tool system can lead to contaminated optics which can cause a decrease in EUV energy reaching the wafer surface, in turn leading to lower throughput. There is a program underway to measure the relative contamination rates from different resists following the ASML approved protocols for witness plate testing4. One of the important steps in this is measuring the residue on the optics after cleaning using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Anything non-cleanable on the reflective optics could lead to its permanent degradation which is undesirable. Due to the number of resists being developed for EUV, there is a need for rapid testing and optimizing the XPS for throughput, precision and accuracy. In this paper, we discuss the role of XPS in quantification of species that adhere to the witness plate sample, which is a ruthenium-coated silicon wafer, as a result of the resist outgassing upon EUV exposure. XPS is a relatively slow spectroscopic technique when high accuracy in measurements is necessary, as is the requirement for our application. In this study we have attempted to optimize the various XPS parameters such as the beam power, beam spot size as well as the pass energy of the analyzer. We also studied the XPS anode degradation and the impact it has on the measurement accuracy.
During exposure in an EUV scanner, photoresist and other materials coated on a wafer are known to outgas various species. As a requirement to pattern materials in an ASML NXE scanner, these materials need to be screened for outgassing and possible optics contamination. As part of the testing process, a resist-coated wafer is exposed in a vacuum chamber mimicking the conditions inside an EUV scanner. The resist exposure source can be either EUV photons or electron beam (e-beam). This presentation will cover the results to date on a SEMATECH program to study resist outgassing from both the commercial system from EUV Tech and a custom Resist Outgassing and Exposure (ROX) tool. The EUV Tech results reported will be based on electron exposures of the photoresist, and the ROX results reported will be based on EUV photon exposures of the photoresist. The results reported will cover both tools and the measurements of over 80 commercial photoresists.
It is widely recognized in the semiconductor industry that getting to defect-free extreme ultraviolet
(EUV) mask blanks is critical in achieving high volume chip manufacturing yield beyond the 22 nm half-pitch
node. Total defectivity of an EUV mask blank depends on the defectivity of substrate and finished
mask blank. Finished mask blanks are normally subjected to a cleaning process to get rid of the loosely
adhered particles on the top. This is normally done in a spin-spray mask cleaning tool using traditional
mask cleaning processes. It is important that this cleaning process does not degrade the properties of
the multilayer blank or introduce additional particles or pits during the process. However, standard
cleaning processes used to clean multilayer blanks result in EUV reflectivity loss, loss of uniformity in
reflectivity, increased roughness and adds pits and particles on mask blanks. The standard cleaning
process used consists of multiple steps, each of which may cause the oxidation of Ru capping layer as
well as other underlying bilayers, etching of the multilayer stack and increased roughness of the bilayers
thus leading to a loss in EUV reflectivity. It is a challenging task to experimentally correlate the
processing steps to the resulting damage and to quantify the reflectivity loss. Furthermore, due to the
high cost of materials we have not been able to do extensive experiments to determine the root cause
of problems. In this work, we have combined mask blank cleaning using standard processes, TEM cross
section studies and simulations to quantify the impact of the multilayer oxidation, etching and
roughness on the EUV reflectivity loss and mask blank degradation.
Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is the leading contender for adoption as the next generation
lithography technique. One of the critical challenges in this technology is producing defect-free masks.
Particles generated in the fabrication process often deposit on the mask blank and result in phase and
amplitude defects. Hence, it is important to study the transport, behavior and generation of particles in the
ion deposition tool used for mask blank deposition. We show results on detecting particles from ultrahigh
vacuum (UHV) valves by using optical counters and condensation particle counters. The particles were
also trapped using impactor plates and analyzed with Energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) for
elemental composition.
Optics contamination remains one of the challenges in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Dependence of
contamination rates on key EUV parameters was investigated. EUV tools have optics at different illumination angles. It
was observed that at shallower angles, the carbon contamination rate and surface roughness was higher on the optics
surface. This is a concern in EUV optics as higher roughness would increase the scattering of the EUV radiation.
Secondary ion time of flight mass spectrometer (TOF-SIMS) data indicated that the carbon contamination film might be
a polymer. Three chemical species were used to investigate the dependence of polymerization and reactivity on the
contamination rate. Acrylic acid was found to have a measurable contamination rate above background compared to
propionic acid and methyl methacrylate. Secondary electron dissociation is one of the mechanisms considered to be a
cause for the growth of the carbon contamination film. Multiple experiments with two substrates having different
secondary electron yields were performed. The substrate with the higher secondary electron yield was found to give a
higher contamination rate.
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