Hitachi, Ltd.

Renesas Technology Corp.

Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.

Katsuya Hayano

Norio Hasegawa

Fumio Murai

Akira Imai

Hiroshi Mohri

Takaharu Nagai

Yasutaka Morikawa

Hiroshi Fukuda

Tsuneo Terasawa

Hideyoshi Takamizawa

Hiroshi Watanabe

Takashi Adachi

Shinji Okazaki

Akemi Moniwa

Naoko Asai

Yasuhiro Koizumi

Youhei Ohkawa

Ayako Tani

Shinji Kubo

Shuntaro Machida

Hiroyuki Enomoto

Yoichi Miura

Shoji Hotta

Seiichiro Shirai

Yasuko Gotoh

Takashi Matsuzaka

Katsuhiro Kawasaki

Morihisa Hoga

Yasushi Kawai

Youichi Miura

Hironobu Takaya

Eiji Tsujimoto

Takahiro Watanabe

The present invention provides a halftone mask comprising an assist pattern and a manufacturing method of the halftone mask, which uses an ArF excimer laser as an exposing source, is used for a projection exposure by an off axis illumination, does not resolve the as pattern while keeping the focal depth magnification effect as the assist pattern, and may form a transferred image having high contrast of a main pattern. A photomask is a photomask comprising the main pattern which is transferred to a transfer-target surface by the projection exposure and the assist pattern which is formed nearby the main pattern and not transferred, characterized in that the main pattern and the assist pattern are each constituted from a semi-transparent film made of the same material, a retardation of 180&#xb0; is generated between the light transmitting through the main pattern and the light transmitting through a transparent region of a transparent substrate, and a predetermined retardation within the scope of 70&#xb0; to 115&#xb0; is generated between the light transmitting through the assist pattern and the light transmitting through the transparent region of the transparent substrate.

Photomask and methods for manufacturing and correcting photomask

The present invention provides a halftone mask comprising an assist pattern and a manufacturing method of the halftone mask, which uses an ArF excimer laser as an exposing source, is used for a projection exposure by an off axis illumination, does not resolve the assist pattern while keeping the focal depth magnification effect as the assist pattern, and may form a transferred image having high contrast of a main pattern. A photomask is a photomask comprising the main pattern which is transferred to a transfer-target surface by the projection exposure and the assist pattern which is formed nearby the main pattern and not transferred, characterized in that the main pattern and the assist pattern are each constituted from a semi-transparent film made of the same material, a retardation of 180&#xb0; is generated between the light transmitting through the main pattern and the light transmitting through a transparent region of a transparent substrate, and a predetermined retardation within the scope of 70&#xb0; to 115&#xb0; is generated between the light transmitting through the assist pattern and the light transmitting through the transparent region of the transparent substrate.

The present invention provides a mask blank including: a transparent substrate, a half-transparent layer for controlling a phase and a transmittance of the exposure light, formed on the transparent substrate, a middle layer formed on the half-transparent layer, and a light-shielding layer formed on the middle layer, wherein the light-shielding layer is constituted with a single metal material not including a transition metal; a film thickness of the light-shielding layer is 40 nm or less; and an optical density of a laminated body, in which three kinds of layers: the half-transparent layer, the middle layer, and the light-shielding layer are laminated, with respect to the exposure light is a value to the extent that the laminated body functions as a light-shielding region or more; the mask blank is used for producing a half tone type phase shift mask, and suitable for a lithography technique on a wafer from 40 nm half pitch and on for its high light-shielding property even thinning the light-shielding pattern film, capability of decreasing the value of EMF bias, and excellency in pattern processability, light-shielding property and chemical resistance.

Mask blank, phase shift mask, and production method thereof

The present invention provides a mask blank used to produce a halftone phase shift mask to which ArF excimer laser exposure light is to be applied. The present invention attains the object by providing the mask blank comprising a transparent substrate, and a light semitransmissive layer formed on the transparent substrate and made only of Si and N or a light semitransmissive layer formed on the transparent substrate and made only of Si, N and O, wherein the light semitransmissive layer has an extinction coefficient of 0.2 to 0.45 at a wavelength of ArF excimer laser exposure light, a refractive index of 2.3 to 2.7 at the wavelength of ArF excimer laser exposure light, and a transmittance of 15 to 38% at the wavelength of ArF excimer laser exposure light, and further has a layer thickness of 57 to 67 nm.

Mask blank, mask blank with negative resist film, phase shift mask, and method for producing pattern formed body using same

The performance of a sensor in a semiconductor device can be improved. A plurality of oscillators forming an ultrasonic sensor are arranged on a main surface of a semiconductor chip. A negative-type photosensitive insulating film which protects the oscillators is deposited on an uppermost layer of the semiconductor chip. At the time of exposure for forming an opening in the photosensitive insulating film, the semiconductor chip is divided into a plurality of exposure areas and exposed, and then, the exposure areas are jointed so that the entire area is exposed. At this time, a stitching exposure area is arranged so that a center of the stitching exposure area in a width direction in the joint portion of the adjacent exposure areas is positioned at a center of a line which connects centers of oscillators located above and below the stitching exposure area.

Method for manufacturing semiconductor device using overlapping exposure and semiconductor device thereof

In a massed region of each of a plurality of transfer areas of a mask a plurality of light transmission patterns are formed by opening a half-tone film. A phase shifter is disposed in each of the light transmission patterns so that a 180&#xb0; phase inversion occurs between the lights that transmit through adjacent light transmission patterns. In a sparse region of the plurality of transfer areas a solitary light transmission pattern is formed by opening the half-tone film. Both shape and size are the same among the light transmission patterns, which are disposed symmetrically in both the massed and sparse regions about the center between the transfer areas. The phase shifters in the massed regions are disposed so that the phase of each phase shifter in one of the transfer areas comes to be opposed to that of its counterpart in the other transfer area. In the exposure process, those transfer areas are overlaid one upon another in the same chip region.

Manufacturing method of semiconductor integrated circuit device

A mask fabrication time is shortened. By patterning an electron-sensitive resist film coated on a main surface of a mask substrate, a pellicle is mounted on the main surface of the mask substrate immediately after a resist pattern made from an electron beam sensitive resist film and having light-shielding characteristics with respect to exposure light is formed. Subsequently, by irradiating a laser beam to defect made from the electron beam sensitive resist film with the pellicle being mounted on the mask substrate, the defect is removed. Since the defect can be removed without removing the pellicle, the mask fabrication time can be shortened.

Fabrication method of semiconductor integrated circuit device and mask fabrication method

To alleviate the absolute value control accuracy of phases in a mask having a groove shifter structure, transfer regions formed at different planar positions on the same plane of the same mask are subjected to a multiple exposure by scanning exposure. Although identical mask patterns are formed over the transfer regions respective groove shifters provided to these mask patterns are arranged opposite from each other.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor integrated circuit devices

A semitransparent phase shifting mask has, in the periphery of a pattern element area, a light shielding portion which is formed by a semitransparent phase shifting portion and a transparent portion with the optimal size combination. A pattern is formed employing the semitransparent phase shifting mask.

Photomask and pattern forming method employing the same

Densely disposed patterns constituting a semiconductor integrated circuit device are divided into a first mask pattern and a second mask patternB such that a phase shifter S can be disposed, and a predetermined pattern is transferred on a semiconductor substrate by multiple-exposure thereof. The second mask patternB has a main light transferring pattern, a plurality of auxiliary light transferring patternsdisposed thereabout, and a phase shifter S disposed in the main light transferring pattern. The auxiliary light transferring patternsare disposed such that respective distances from a center of each thereof to a center of the main light transferring patternare substantially equal. With this arrangement, a densely disposed pattern is transferred with sufficient process transfer margin.

The manufacturing time of a mask is shortened. In a defect inspection of a mask having a light-shielding portion composed of a resist film, the presence or absence of defects, such as burr and film loss of a resist pattern on the mask, and foreign matters, etc. is inspected by reading optical information on either or both of reflection light and transmission light with respect to inspection light irradiated to the mask by the use of a foreign-matter inspection system. More specifically, in the inspection of the mask, it is possible to perform the defect inspection without performing a comparison inspection that requires a great amount of measuring time and advanced techniques. Therefore, the inspecting process of the mask can be simplified, and also the inspecting time of the mask can be shortened.

Method of manufacturing mask and method of manufacturing semiconductor integrated circuit device

Disclosed is a technique capable of reducing the manufacturing time of a photomask. In a method of transferring a predetermined pattern onto a semiconductor wafer by reduced projection exposure using a product mask manufactured by performing the reduced projection exposure to a pattern of an IP mask Mm , the IP mask Mm is designed to have a resist mask structure in which a light-shielding pattern thereof is constituted of an organic film such as a resist film.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Katsuya Hayano