Study of novel EUVL mask absorber candidates

Wu, Meiyi; Thakare, Devesh; Marneffe, Jean‐François de; Jaenen, Patrick; Souriau, Laurent; Opsomer, Karl; Soulié, Jean-Philippe; Erdmann, Andreas; Mesilhy, Hazem; Naujok, Philipp; Foltin, Markus; Soltwisch, Victor; Saadeh, Qais; Philipsen, Vicky

doi:10.1117/1.jmm.20.2.021002

Cited by 19 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…They consist of a highly reflective multilayer substrate of alternating layers of silicon and molybdenum and an absorber layer on top [41,42,43]. Compound materials such as TaBN, Ni 3 Al [1], RuTa [4], PtMo, or TaTeN [2,3] are currently at the focus of interest for novel absorber materials. Photomasks create a pattern at the wafer based on different physical principles: if most parts of the incoming radiation are absorbed, it is called a 'binary mask'.…”

Section: Application In Euv Lithographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The complexity of functional nano-structures is constantly increasing in the semiconductor industry, and a key enabler for upcoming technologies beyond the 10 nm semiconductor node is new materials. Specifically, metals such as Pt, Te, Mo, Ru start to play a central role as absorber materials in photo lithography, for capping layers or as a means of thermal or electric contacts [1,2,3,4]. Their alloys are used to tune the material's properties to the desired values and therefore must be studied beforehand, which highlights the need for a precise and reliable determination of the physical constants of those thin film materials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Determination of optical constants of thin films in the EUV

Ciesielski

Saadeh

Philipsen³

et al. 2022

Appl. Opt.

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The determination of fundamental optical parameters is essential for the development of new optical elements such as mirrors, gratings, or photomasks. Especially in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft x-ray spectral range, the existing databases for the refractive indices of many materials and compositions are insufficient or are a mixture of experimentally measured and calculated values from atomic scattering factors. Since the physical properties of bulk materials and thin films with thicknesses in the nanometer range are not identical, measurements need to be performed on thin layers. In this study we demonstrate how optical constants of various thin film samples on a bulk substrate can be determined from reflection measurements in the EUV photon energy range from 62 eV to 124 eV. Thin films with thickness of 20 nm to 50 nm of pure Mo, Ni, Pt, Ru, Ta, and Te and different compositions of N i x A l x , PtTe, P t x M o , R u x T a x , R u 3 R e , R u 2 W , and TaTeN were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering and measured using EUV reflectometry. The determination optical constants of the different materials are discussed and compared to existing tabulated values.

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Section: Application In Euv Lithographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determination of optical constants of thin films in the EUV

Ciesielski

Saadeh

Philipsen³

et al. 2022

Appl. Opt.

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“…Detailed information on the development of the new absorber material can be found in ref. [30]. Figure 5 shows a comparison of the optical constants extracted from a 40 nm thick TaTeN film against the approximated values from the Center for X-Ray Optics (CXRO, Berkeley) database [26].…”

Section: Optical Constants Determinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-precision optical constant characterization of materials in the EUV spectral range: from large research facilities to laboratory-based instruments

Soltwisch

Glabisch

Andrle³

et al. 2022

37th European Mask and Lithography Conference

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Any modeling of an interaction between photons and matter is based on the optical parameters. The determination of these parameters, also called optical constants or refractive indices, is an indispensable component for the development of new optical elements such as mirrors, gratings, or lithography photomasks. Especially in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectral region, existing databases for the refractive indices of many materials and compositions are inadequate or are a mixture of experimentally measured and calculated values from atomic scattering factors. Synchrotron radiation is of course ideally suited to verify such material parameters due to the tuneability of photon energy. However, due to the large number of possible compounds and alloys, the development of EUV laboratory reflectometers is essential to keep pace with the development of materials science and allow for inline or on-site quality control. Additionally, optical constants are also essential for EUV metrology techniques that aim to achieve dimensional reconstruction of nanopatterned structures with sub-nm resolution. For this purpose, we studied a TaTeN grating created on an EUV Mo/Si multilayer mirror, to mimic a novel absorber EUV photomask. We present here a first reconstruction comparison of these structures, measured by EUV scatterometry at the electron storage ring BESSYII and with a laboratory setup of a spectrally-resolved EUV reflectometer developed at RWTH Aachen University. Both approaches differ in several aspects reaching from setup size to spectral quality (brilliance, bandwidth and coherence) as well as the measured and simulated data.

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“… – 8 To mitigate the M3D effects, one approach is to employ alternative mask stacks 7 , 9 – 17 The low-n attenuated phase-shift mask (attPSM) has shown substantial imaging improvements in simulations and experiments: a higher depth of focus (DoF) at similar NILS and a smaller telecentricity errors than the best binary mask configuration 13 , 18 – 22 In this paper, the patterning of metal pitch 28-nm design using low-n attPSM mask technology is investigated in simulation and experimentally.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extend 0.33 NA extreme ultraviolet single patterning to pitch 28-nm metal design by low-n mask

Gillijns

Tan

et al. 2022

J. Micro/Nanopattern. Mats. Metro.

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Extending 0.33 NA extreme ultraviolet single patterning to 28-nm pitch becomes challenging in stochastic defectivity, which demands high-contrast lithographic images. The low-n attenuated phase-shift mask (attPSM) can provide superior solutions for individual pitches by mitigating mask three-dimensional effects. The simulation and experiment results have shown substantial imaging improvements: higher depth of focus at similar normalized image log slope and smaller telecentricity error values than the best binary mask configuration. In this work, the exploration of low-n attPSM patterning opportunity for pitch 28-nm metal design is investigated. Using generic building block features, the lithographic performance of the low-n attPSM is compared with the standard binary Ta-based absorber mask. In addition, the impact of mask tone (bright field (BF) versus dark field) on the pattern fidelity and process window is evaluated both by simulations and experiments. The results indicate that BF low-n attPSM provides the best patterning performance. Consequently, the BF low-n attPSM patterning performance is assessed with an actual imec N3 pitch 28-nm random logic metal design. The wafer data indicate BF low-n attPSM enables good patterning fidelity, as well as good overall process window with high exposure latitude (∼20%).

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Study of novel EUVL mask absorber candidates

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Determination of optical constants of thin films in the EUV

Determination of optical constants of thin films in the EUV

High-precision optical constant characterization of materials in the EUV spectral range: from large research facilities to laboratory-based instruments

Extend 0.33 NA extreme ultraviolet single patterning to pitch 28-nm metal design by low-n mask

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