Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.

Hiro-o Nakagawa

Toshiaki Motonaga

Junji Fujikawa

Toshifumi Yokoyama

Yoshinori Kinase

Masashi Ohtsuki

Satoshi Yusa

Shigeki Sumida

Chiaki Hatsuta

Hiroshi Mohri

Kenji Noguchi

Takashi Tominaga

Yoichi Takahashi

Yasutaka Morikawa

Takafumi Okamura

It is an object of the present invention to provide a photomask equipped with a dust-proofing device which has high ultraviolet transmittance in a short wavelength region and high light resistance and is free from the necessity of the substitution with inert gas and also to, provide an exposure method using this photomask. The photomask equipped with a dust-proofing device is produced by overlapping a ultraviolet ray-transmittable transparent substrate on the side of the light-shading film pattern surface of the photomask to apply the photomask to the transparent substrate tightly by exhausting and removing the air present between the photomask and the transparent substrate. A transparent film which transmits ultraviolet rays maybe formed on the surface of the photomask on the side of a light-shading film pattern surface and a ultraviolet ray-transmittable transparent substrate may be overlapped on the transparent film to apply the photomask to the transparent substrate tightly by exhausting and removing the air present between the transparent film and the transparent substrate.

Photomask with dust-proofing device and exposure method using the same

Disclosed is a blank for a halftone phase shift photomask comprising a transparent substrate and a halftone phase shift layer formed thereon, the halftone phase shift layer being provided with a layer containing molybdenum silicide as its major component and either one or both of oxygen and nitrogen and being formed of a multilayer film with two or more layers, wherein the multilayer film contains a layer whose major component is either one of chromium and tantalum or a chromium tantalum alloy and the layer whose major component is either one of chromium and tantalum or a chromium tantalum alloy is laminated on the side closer to the transparent substrate than the layer containing molybdenum silicide as its major component and either one or both of oxygen and nitrogen.

Halftone phase shift photomask and blank for halftone phase shift photomask

A photomask is produced which enables the simplification of the steps of lithography. A photomask is provided with shielding patterns made of shielding metallic thin film on a transparent substrate, wherein the photomask further comprises translucent patterns mainly including tantalum of materials selected from tantalum silicide, tantalum oxide, tantalum nitride or mixture thereof.

Photomask

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.

A blank for a halftone phase shift photomask in the present invention comprises a transparent substrate and a halftone phase shift film provided thereon, and said halftone phase shift film has a multilayer construction in which at least a first layer capable of being etched with a chlorinated gas and a second layer capable of being etched with a fluorinated gas are disposed in this order from the side near said transparent substrate. A film made of tantalum silicides is suitable to use as the second layer of the halftone phase shift film. When such a blank is first etched with a fluorinated gas and then etched with chlorinated gas, because an etching selective ratio to a transparent substrate made of synthetic quartz and the like can be taken sufficiently while maintaining the applicability to the exposure light with a short wavelength that is characteristic of silicide materials in addition to good chemical stability and good processing properties that are characteristic of tantalum materials, patterning in high precision will be made possible. As a result, it is possible to obtain an ideal halftone phase shift photomask excellent in stability after mask processing and in the applicability to the short wavelength.

Blank for halftone phase shift photomask and halftone phase shift photomask

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo-to, Japan

Hiro-o Nakagawa