A photomask blank is provided comprising an etch stop film which is disposed on a transparent substrate and is resistant to fluorine dry etching and removable by chlorine dry etching, a light-shielding film disposed on the etch stop film and including at least one layer composed of a transition metal/silicon material, and an antireflective film disposed on the light-shielding film. When the light-shielding film is dry etched to form a pattern, pattern size variation arising from pattern density dependency is reduced, so that a photomask is produced at a high accuracy.

Photomask blank and photomask

A photomask blank comprises a transparent substrate, a light-shielding film deposited on the substrate and comprising a metal or metal compound susceptible to fluorine dry etching, and an etching mask film deposited on the light-shielding film and comprising another metal or metal compound resistant to fluorine dry etching. When the light-shielding film is dry etched to form a pattern, pattern size variation arising from pattern density dependency is reduced, so that a photomask is produced at a high accuracy.

Photomask blank and photomask making method

A halftone phase shift mask blank for use in manufacturing a halftone phase shift mask comprises a transparent substrate, a light transmitting portion formed on the substrate for transmitting an exposure light beam, a phase shifter portion formed on the substrate for transmitting a part of the exposure light beam as a transmitted light beam and for shifting a phase of the transmitted light beam by a predetermined amount, and a phase shifter film for forming the phase shifter portion. The halftone phase shift mask has an optical characteristic such that light beams passing through the light transmitting portion and through the phase shifter portion cancel each other in the vicinity of a boundary portion therebetween, thereby maintaining and improving an excellent contrast at a boundary portion of an exposure pattern to be transferred onto the surface of an object to be exposed. The phase shifter film comprises a film containing silicon, oxygen, and nitrogen as main components and an etching stopper film formed between the film and transparent substrate.

Halftone phase shift mask blank, halftone phase shift mask, and method of producing the same

Techniques for temperature-controlled ion implantation are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as an apparatus for temperature-controlled ion implantation. The apparatus may comprise a platen to hold a wafer in a single-wafer process chamber during ion implantation, the platen including: a wafer clamping mechanism to secure the wafer onto the platen and to provide a predetermined thermal contact between the wafer and the platen, and one or more heating elements to pre-heat and maintain the platen in a predetermined temperature range above room temperature. The apparatus may also comprise a post-cooling station to cool down the wafer after ion implantation. The apparatus may further comprise a wafer handling assembly to load the wafer onto the pre-heated platen and to remove the wafer from the platen to the post-cooling station.

Techniques for temperature-controlled ion implantation

On a silicon substrate, a first insulation layer, a lower conductive layer, a capacitor-insulator layer, and an upper conductive layer are formed in that order. Then, a first resist pattern is formed, the upper conductive layer is etched to form an upper electrode, and the capacitor-insulator layer is successively etched partway under the same etching condition as that of the upper conductive layer. Next, second resist pattern is formed, the remaining part of the capacitor-insulator layer is etched to form a second insulation layer, and the lower conductive layer is successively etched under the same etching condition as that of the capacitor-insulator layer so as to form a lower electrode and a lower wiring. In this manner, an MiM capacitor element constituted by the upper electrode, a part of the second insulation layer, and the lower electrode can be fabricated.

Semiconductor device and fabrication method thereof

A blank for halftone phase shift photomask is disclosed. The blank has a transparent substrate, a halftone phase shift layer and a light shielding film, the halftone phase shift layer and the light shielding film being layered in this order on the transparent substrate, and the l light shielding film is a single layered or multiple layered film which has a layer of tantalum.

Halftone phase shift photomask and blank for halftone phase shift photomask

After quartz blanks with various sulfate ion amount on the surfaces were exposed by an ArF laser, growing defects, haze, 
on the surfaces were consequently counted by an inspection tool. As a result, the number of haze largely depends on the 
sulfate ion amount, and it is found that no haze is generated when the sulfate ion amount is smaller than a threshold value. 
A new haze generation model is provided to explain the threshold phenomenon. And then storage impact on increase of 
the sulfate ion amount was investigated. The sulfate ion amount increases with storage time and airborne SO x 
concentration. From the results, the adsorption coefficient of an extended Langmuir equation was calculated, and the 
adsorption phenomenon was analyzed in detail. Simulation results show that it is recommended, regarding for storage 
environment, to keep under 0.01 ppbv airborne SO x concentration in order to prevent haze for one year.

A new model of haze generation and storage-life-time estimation for mask

We developed a new shifter for half-tone phase shift masks (HTPSMs) in ArF and F 2 lithography, using a TaSiO x film. We have adopted the bilayer structure, which consists of a TaSiO x layer and a transmittance control layer (TCL), to make various transmittance blanks by controlling the thickness of each layers (without changing the film compositions) and to achieve lower transmittances at mask inspection wavelengths. Because we expected that the ratio of Si to Ta in TaSiO x layer was an important parameter regarding defect quality, we decided the Si/Ta ratio for 6% transmittance ArF-HTPSM, high transmittance ArF-HTPSM and F 2 -HTPSM, respectively, considering the inspection light transmittance. We sputtered 6-20% transmittance ArF HTPSM blanks and 9-13% transmittance F 2 HTPSM blanks and confirmed that the experimental transmittance and phase results fitted the optical simulation results well and the inspection light transmittances of all blanks were lowered successfully. TaSiO x -HTPSM had good deposition stability (within plate and plate to plate). Furthermore, TaSiO x -HTPSM showed excellent laser irradiation durability and practical chemical durability.

The development of bilayered TaSiOx-HTPSM (1)

The present invention provides a method for cleaning a photo mask without the need for removal of the pellicle mounted on the photo mask, without the large scale equipment for washing with a solution, with a small number of steps for cleaning and inspection, and without the increase of the production cost. The method for cleaning a photo mask with a pellicle mounted, in which the pellicle frame has a gas introducing hole and a gas discharging hole, comprises: a step of introducing a gaseous substituting substance from the gas introducing hole in a pellicle inner space surrounded by the photo mask and the pellicle, substituting foreign substances on the photo mask, and discharging the foreign substances from the gas discharging hole; and a step of irradiating an ultraviolet ray to the photo mask, while an air or a nitrogen gas or a rare gas is introduced from the gas introducing hole, for degrading the substituted substituting substance so as to be gaseous, and discharging the same from the gas discharging hole.

Method for cleaning photo mask

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for cleaning a photomask without the need for removal of the pellicle mounted on the photomask, without a large-scale equipment for washing with a solution, with a small number of steps for cleaning and inspection, and without an increase of the production cost. SOLUTION: The method for cleaning a photomask with a pellicle mounted, in which the pellicle frame has a gas introducing hole and a gas discharging hole, comprises: a step of introducing a gaseous substituting substance from the gas introducing hole into a pellicle inner space surrounded by the photomask and the pellicle, substituting foreign substances on the photomask with the substituting substance, and discharging the foreign substances from the gas discharging hole; and a step of irradiating the photomask with UV rays while air or nitrogen gas or a rare gas is introduced from the gas introducing hole, for degrading the substituting substance into a gaseous state, and discharging the substance from the gas discharging hole. COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Masashi Ohtsuki

Papers

Halftone phase shift photomask and blank for halftone phase shift photomask

A new model of haze generation and storage-life-time estimation for mask

The development of bilayered TaSiOx-HTPSM (1)

Method for cleaning photo mask

Method for cleaning photomask