Journal ArticleDOI
Phase-shifting masks gain an edge
TLDR
The potential, working principles, and approaches in phase shifting masks for optical lithography are discussed in this article, and the tradeoffs of each approach, and fabrication, inspection, repair, and tolerances are considered.Abstract:
The potential, working principles, and approaches in phase shifting masks for optical lithography are discussed. The tradeoffs of each approach, and fabrication, inspection, repair, and tolerances are considered. It is feasible to use the phase shifting technology to improve optical lithography to 0.18- mu m feature size with k/sub 1/=0.35, lambda =248 nm, and NA=0.5. Further resolution improvements are still possible, but much development is required for making phase shifting masks a manufacturing reality. >read more
Citations
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Patent
Phase shifting circuit manufacture method and apparatus
Yao-Ting Wang,Yagyensh C. Pati +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the phase shift mask and the single phase structure mask are derived from a set of masks used in a larger minimum dimension process technology and used for shrinking integrated circuit designs.
Patent
Phase shift masking for complex patterns with proximity adjustments
TL;DR: In this paper, techniques for extending the use of phase shift techniques to implementation of masks used for complex layouts in the layers of integrated circuits, beyond selected critical dimension features, are presented.
Patent
Standard cell design incorporating phase information
TL;DR: In this paper, the phase information is incorporated into a cell-based design methodology and phase sets are selected based on the ability to phase shift the features within the cell C by creating a phase set for most of the cells of a cell library.
Patent
Design data format and hierarchy management for processing
TL;DR: In this article, a phase shifting layout from an original layout is divided into useful groups, i.e., clusters that can be independently processed, so that the phase shifting process can be performed more rapidly.
Patent
Design and layout of phase shifting photolithographic masks
TL;DR: In this article, a method for defining full phase layout for defining a layer of material in an integrated circuit is described, which can be used to define, arrange, and refine phase shifters to substantially define the layer using phase shifting.
References
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Proceedings ArticleDOI
Phase-shifting photolithography applicable to real IC patterns
TL;DR: In this paper, a phase-shifting technique which simplifies mask fabrication and is applicable to actual IC patterns has been introduced into the i-line positive resist process, which combines edge-contrast enhancement and a chromeless mask.
Proceedings ArticleDOI
Phase-shifting and other challenges in optical mask technology
TL;DR: In this paper, phase shifts in the mask can simultaneously improve resolution and depth of focus, with the potential of a two-generation improvement with any given projection imaging equipment, provided the overlay capability is upgraded accordingly.
Proceedings ArticleDOI
Fabrication of 64 M DRAM with i-line phase-shift lithography
K. Nakagawa,M. Taguchi,Taiji Ema +2 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a phase shift lithography applicable to all device patterns has been developed, which combines pattern formation with the shifter alone and edge contrast enhancement with shifter, and one can make 0.3 mu m patterns with i-line photolithography.
Proceedings ArticleDOI
Focused-ion-beam repair of phase-shift photomasks
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the issues associated with extending high-resolution focused ion beam mask repair to phase-shift masks and showed that the minimum printable defect size, 0.3 microns (on the mask) for I-line steppers at 0.35 microns, is roughly half that for conventional photomasks.
Proceedings ArticleDOI
Phase and transmission error study for the alternating-element (Levenson) phase-shifting mask
Ahmad D. Katnani,Burn Jeng Lin +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of phase and transmission errors on the alternating-element phase shifting method for printing closely packed lines and spaces were investigated for the Levenson technique, and the dependence of these errors on k2, A, and NA were discussed.