Articles you may be interested inNanostructuring of free-standing, dielectric membranes using electron-beam lithography J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 31, 06F402 (2013); 10.1116/1.4820019 Advanced photolithographic mask repair using electron beams J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 23, 3101 (2005); 10.1116/1.2062428High-speed and high-precision deflectors applied in electron beam lithography system based on scanning electron microscopy In situ electron-beam lithography on GaAs substrates using a metal alkoxide resist High-resolution electron-beam-assisted deposition and etching is an enabling technology for current and future generation photomask repair. NaWoTec in collaboration with Carl Zeiss NTS (formerly LEO Electron Microscopy) has developed a mask repair tool capable of processing a wide variety of mask types, such as quartz binary masks, phase shift masks, extreme ultraviolet masks, and e-beam projection stencil masks. Specifications currently meet the 65 nm device node requirements, and tool performance is extendible to 45 nm and below. The tool combines LEO's ultra-high-resolution Supra scanning electron microscope platform with NaWoTec's proprietary e-beam deposition and etching technology, gas delivery system, and mask repair software. In this article, we focus on tool performance results; that is, the reproducibility and accuracy of repair of clear and opaque programmed defects on Cr binary and MoSi phase shift masks. These masks have in the past been difficult to repair due to beam position instability caused by charging of the insulating quartz areas. We have found and implemented a solution to this charging problem and have demonstrated in spec repair of various defect types. The extendibility of e-beam-based repair technology to future lithography nodes, both in terms of the required resolution and the ability to repair next generation lithography mask types, will also be addressed.

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Electron-based surface activation of surfaces functionalized by remote plasma appears like a flexible and novel approach to atomic scale etching and deposition. Relative to plasma-based dry etching that uses ion bombardment of a substrate to achieve controlled material removal, electron beam-induced etching (EBIE) is expected to reduce surface damage, including atom displacement, surface roughness, and undesired material removal. One of the issues with EBIE is the limited number of chemical precursors that can be used to functionalize material surfaces. In this work, we demonstrate a new configuration that was designed to leverage flexible surface functionalization using a remote plasma source, and, by combining with electron beam bombardment to remove the chemically reacted surface layer through plasma-assisted electron beam-induced etching, achieve highly controlled etching. This article describes the experimental configuration used for this demonstration that consists of a remote plasma source and an electron flood gun for enabling electron beam-induced etching of SiO2 with Ar/CF4/O2 precursors. We evaluated the parametric dependence of SiO2 etching rate on processing parameters of the flood gun, including electron energy and emission current, and of the remote plasma source, including radiofrequency source power and flow rate of CF4/O2, respectively. Additionally, two prototypical processing cases were demonstrated by temporally combining or separating remote plasma treatment and electron beam irradiation. The results validate the performance of this approach for etching applications, including photomask repair and atomic layer etching of SiO2. Surface characterization results that provide mechanistic insights into these processes are also presented and discussed.