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 configuration for preventing deformation of a solid oxide fuel cell is provided. A solid oxide fuel cell 1 includes a support substrate 2 formed from a gas-permeable metal, an anode 3 placed on the first surface of the support substrate 2, a back surface layer 7 placed on the second surface of the support substrate 2, an electrolyte 4 placed on the anode 3, and a cathode 6 placed on the electrolyte 4, and the anode and the back surface layer contain a metal and a ceramic.

Solid oxide fuel cell

The present invention includes devices, systems, and methods for assaying cells using cell-substrate impedance monitoring. In one aspect, the invention provides cell-substrate impedance monitoring devices that comprise electrode arrays on a nonconducting substrate, in which each of the arrays has an approximately uniform electrode resistance across the entire array. In another aspect, the invention provides cell-substrate monitoring systems comprising one or more cell-substrate monitoring devices comprising multiple wells each having an electrode array, an impedance analyzer, a device station that connects arrays of individual wells to the impedance analyzer, and software for controlling the device station and impedance analyzer. In another aspect, the invention provides cellular assays that use impedance monitoring to detect changes in cell behavior or state. In some preferred aspects, the assays are designed to investigate the affects of compounds on cells, such as cytotoxicity assays. In other preferred aspects, the assays are designed to investigate the compounds that effect IgE-mediated responses of cells to antigens.

Real time electronic cell sensing systems and applications for cell-based assays

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

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

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)

A record display medium is provided which can offer a high display contrast and is less likely to cause a lowering of contrast or disappearance of display even in low temperature and high temperature regions. A polymeric material for a liquid crystal/polymer composite film comprising a liquid crystal present in a polymer matrix, a liquid crystal/polymer composite film using the material, and use of the record display medium are also provided. The polymeric material for a liquid crystal/polymer composite film comprising a liquid crystal present in a polymer matrix has a glass transition temperature of 150° C. or above and is insoluble in water.

Polymeric material for liquid crystal/polymer composite film, record display medium, and use thereof

Electron beam projection lithography (EPL) has been developed for application to 65 nm node devices and beyond. 200-mm EPL masks have also been developed keeping pace with the exposure tool. Image placement (IP) accuracy is a necessary quality assurance item to bring masks into production. A suspension type electrostatic chuck designed for EPL mask measurement for an IP metrology tool Leica LMS IPRO was prepared for measurement of local IP errors, defined for each subfiled. The chuck holds the mask on its membrane-side surface right side up. Three 200-mm stencil masks with tensile membrane stresses of 8, 18, and 43 MPa were fabricated. The IP error is found to increase as the stress increases. Marks in the area of a high pattern density with a void fraction of 0.2 moved toward the area of a low pattern density with a void fraction of 0.016. The IP errors did not strongly depend on the kinds of dummy patterns (either hole or L&S) having the same void fraction of 0.25 and macroscopic uniformity. If the stress is less than 10 MPa, the IP error (3 sigma) is less than 10 nm, satisfying the EPL mask requirement. Local CD accuracy was also evaluated for a mask with a membrane stress of 8 MPa.

200-mm EPL stencil mask fabrication and metrology at DNP: IP and CD accuracy within subfield

200-mm stencil masks for electron beam projection lithography (EPL) have been developed. Since they are not so rigid as photomasks because of their structure, 200-mm wafers with about 8,000 membrane windows, new metrological techniques dedicated to stencil masks have be introduced. Image placement (IP) accuracy of an EPL mask is evaluated with a suspension-type electrostatic chuck introduced to a Leica LMS IPRO. The dynamic repeatability of global IP measurements was 27 nm (3σ). It was confirmed that global IP errors were reduced to 60 nm (3σ, max) by linear-term and gravity corrections.

Yoshinori Kinase

Papers

Halftone phase shift photomask and blank for halftone phase shift photomask

The development of bilayered TaSiOx-HTPSM (1)

Polymeric material for liquid crystal/polymer composite film, record display medium, and use thereof

200-mm EPL stencil mask fabrication and metrology at DNP: IP and CD accuracy within subfield

Evaluation of image placement of EPL stencil masks