Hoya Corporation

Hoyo Corporation

Masao Ushida

Masaru Mitsui

Shigekazu Matsui

Minoru Sakamoto

Kouichi Maruyama

Naoki Nishida

Haruhiko Yamagata

Kenichi Kagaya

Osamu Nagarekawa

Osamu Suzuki

Yasushi Okubo

Hiroyuki Iwashita

Takeyuki Yamada

Megumi Takeuchi

It is provided a photomask blank that has good flatness when a light-shielding film is patterned and hence can provide a good mask pattern accuracy and a good pattern transfer accuracy, and a method of producing a photomask. A photomask blank of the present invention includes a light-shielding film containing at least chromium on a light-transmitting substrate. The light-shielding film is formed so as to cause a desired film stress in the direction opposite to that of a change in the film stress that is anticipated to be caused in the light-shielding film by heat treatment according to a resist film formed on the light-shielding film. A photomask is produced by patterning the light-shielding film of the photomask blank by dry etching.

Photomask blank and method of producing the same, method of producing photomask, and method of producing semiconductor device

A lithography mask blank used as a material for producing a lithography mask includes at least one thin film which is formed on a substrate and has a desired function. The blank has a nitrogen-containing thin film as the above-mentioned thin film and an ammonium ion production preventing layer for preventing production of ammonium ions, which is formed on the nitrogen-containing thin film or at least at a surface portion of the nitrogen-containing thin film and which is exposed on the surface of the lithography mask after the lithography mask is manufactured.

Lithography mask blank

A halftone type phase shift mask having a semitranslucent film pattern and a shielding film pattern provided on a transparent substrate in this order is constituted in such a manner that each of the reflectances of the transparent substrate, the semitranslucent film pattern and the shielding film pattern for an inspecting light represents a difference which can detect the semitranslucent film pattern and the shielding film pattern based on a reflected light generated when the inspecting light is irradiated on the mask.

Halftone type phase shift mask blank and halftone type phase shift mask

Photomask blank

In obtaining a photomask blankby disposing a sputtering target in a vacuum chamber and forming thin filmsandwith a three-layer construction of CrN/CrC/CrON over a transparent substrateby reactive sputtering, the thin films are formed in a mixed gas atmosphere containing helium, and the helium gas flux in the mixed gas is controlled such that the crystal grain diameter of the CrC thin film, which is the thickest film, will be 3 to 7 nm. This yields a photomask blank having thin films with low film stress, having good film quality, and which can be produced at a high yield in mass production.

Photomask blank, photomask, methods of manufacturing the same and methods of forming micropattern

Photomask blank, photomask, methods of manufacturing the same, and method of forming micropattern

In a photo-mask blank comprising a transparent substrate member and a shading layer of chromium covered on a principal surface of the substrate member, the shading layer has a first portion adjacent the principal surface and etched at a first etch rate and a second portion farther from the principal surface than the first portion and etched at a second etch rate lower than the first etch rate. For this purpose, nitrogen is dispersed so that the first portion becomes rich in nitrogen as compared with the second portion. Alternatively, carbon is dispersed so that the first portion becomes scarce in carbon relative to the second portion. The first portion may include nitrogen. The substrate member may comprise a transparent flat plate and a transparent conductive layer coated on the flat plate. The photo-mask blank is processed into a photo-mask through an etching process.

Photo-mask blank comprising a shading layer having a variable etch rate

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Masao Ushida