Sputtered Ta<i>X</i> film properties for x-ray mask absorbers

Yoshihara, Takuya

doi:10.1116/1.589054

Cited by 21 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…11,12 Figure 4͑a͒ shows that although we attained better controllability, the Cr stress was tensile and fairly high over the entire range of Xe gas pressure, so evidently we cannot achieve near-zero stress by controlling the Xe gas pressure. 11,12 Figure 4͑a͒ shows that although we attained better controllability, the Cr stress was tensile and fairly high over the entire range of Xe gas pressure, so evidently we cannot achieve near-zero stress by controlling the Xe gas pressure.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Low-stress sputtered chromium–nitride hardmasks for x-ray mask fabrication

Tsuboi¹

1997

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena

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We have developed low-stress chromium nitride ͑CrN͒ films as hardmasks for x-ray absorber etching. The stress in the CrN films is 3 MPa and its distribution ͑gradient͒ is less than 10 MPa in a 25ϫ25 mm area. In addition, the CrN film is electrically conductive ͑1.4 ⍀/ᮀ͒. We have fabricated 0.10 m line-and-space patterns in 0.4-m-thick tantalum germanide using a 75-nm-thick CrN hardmask. The results demonstrate that a sputtered CrN film is an excellent hardmask material for x-ray mask fabrication.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Low-stress sputtered chromium–nitride hardmasks for x-ray mask fabrication

Tsuboi¹

1997

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena

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“…To meet 0.1 jam ULSI design role, the absorber should have a tensile stress less than 5• l0 s dyne/cm: and be stable within --+5 • 107 dyne/cm 2 [6]. Among the several candidate materials like Au [7,8], Ta [2,9,10], W [11,12] metals and their compounds [3,4,[13][14][15][16][17], W has long been studied as an absorber material for x-ray mask, due to its comparable thermal expansion with membrane materials, a relatively high Young's modulus and the possibility of dry etching. However, W film has a problem of stress instability due to oxygen diffusion along the grain boundary of columnar structure [6].…”

Section: 1ntroductonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of x-ray mask fabrication process using w-sputtering

Lee

LeE

Ahn

1997

Metals and Materials

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Properties of DC magnetron sputter-deposited W and WNx absorber films were investigated for x-ray mask applications. Ixw~' stress film (~5 • 10 dyne/cm'-tensile stress) is difficult to obtain with pure Ar gas as the film stress changes from highly compressive to highly tensile with pressure change. The variation of stress with pressure is significantly reduced with NJAr mixture gas, and a reasonable tensile stress and stress stability were obtained with 5% N, a! 3.5 mTorr. Film density decreases with increasing sputtering pressure and N,/Ar + N, ratio. XRD patterns for films deposited at 3.5 reTort show crystalline ~-W structure for Ar sputtered film but amorphous structure for 5% N,-sputtered film. Surface smoothness is very good at 5% N2 but further increase of NjAr+Nz ratio results in a surface roughening and this is also confirmed by TEM analysis. At this sputtering condition (5% N~, 3.5 mTorr), film stress stability during air-exposure and annealing was also superior, suggesting a optimum process condition for W-based absorber films.

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“…2,3 Table IV shows the principal characteristics comparison among Ta and Ta alloys. 2,3 Table IV shows the principal characteristics comparison among Ta and Ta alloys.…”

Section: Comparison Among the X-ray Absorber Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%