Hoya Corporation

Morio Hosoya

Tsutomu Shoki

Masahiro Hashimoto

Hiroaki Shishido

Atsushi Kominato

Hiroyuki Iwashita

Yuki Shiota

Shinichi Ishibashi

Takeyuki Yamada

Mitsuhiro Kureishi

Akira Ikeda

Takeru Kinoshita

Provided are a reflective mask blank and a reflective mask which are capable of improving the contrast for inspection light having a wavelength of 200 nm or less in an inspection, capable of improving the contrast for exposure light in use of the mask, and capable of forming a high-resolution fine pattern. A reflective mask blankincludes a substrate, and a multilayer reflective filmadapted to reflect exposure light, a protective filmcomposed mainly of ruthenium (Ru) or its compound on the multilayer reflective film, and an absorber filmadapted to absorb the exposure light, which are formed in this order on the substrate. The absorber filmhas a laminated structure including an uppermost layerand a lower layer. The uppermost layeris formed of a material composed mainly of a nitride, an oxide, an oxynitride, a carbide, a carbonitride, or an oxycarbonitride of at least one or more elements selected from Si and Cr. A reflective maskis obtained by forming a transfer pattern in the absorber film of the reflective mask blank.

Reflective mask blank and method of manufacturing a reflective mask

A photomask blank for producing a photomask to which an ArF excimer laser light is applied. The blank includes a light transmissive substrate on which a thin film having a multilayer structure is provided. The thin film has a light-shielding film in which a back-surface antireflection layer, a light-shielding layer and a front-surface antireflection layer are laminated in this order. The light-shielding layer comprises chromium and nitrogen, and the chromium content is more than 50 atomic %. The front-surface antireflection layer and the back-surface antireflection layer each has an amorphous structure made of a material comprising chromium, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon. The chromium content ratio of the front-surface antireflection layer and the back-surface antireflection layer is 40 atomic % or less. A first sum of nitrogen content and oxygen content of the back-surface antireflection layer is less than a second sum of nitrogen content and oxygen content of the front-surface antireflection layer.

Photomask blank, photomask, and method for manufacturing photomask blank

A reflective mask blank and a reflective mask that can improve the contrast for EUV exposure light in use of the mask and further can improve the pattern resolution at a pattern edge portion of the mask, thereby enabling high-resolution pattern transfer. The reflective mask blank has a substrate and, further, a multilayer reflective film adapted to reflect the EUV exposure light and an absorber film adapted to absorb the EUV exposure light, which are formed in this order over the substrate. The absorber film is made of a material containing Ta and has a film density of 6.0 to 16.0 g/cm. A reflective mask is obtained by forming a transfer pattern in the absorber film of the reflective mask blank.

Disclosed is a reflective mask blank () which comprises a substrate (), a multilayer reflective film () for reflecting exposure light, a buffer film (), and an absorber film () for absorbing exposure light, said films being sequentially formed on the substrate. The absorber film () has a multilayer structure which is composed of an uppermost layer () and a lower layer (). The uppermost layer is formed from a material containing oxide, oxynitride or carbide of Ta, and has a refractive index (n) of 0.95-0.97 and an extinction coefficient (k) of from &#x2212;0.033 to &#x2212;0.023. The lower layer is formed from a material containing Ta, and has a refractive index (n) of 0.94-0.97 and an extinction coefficient (k) of from &#x2212;0.050 to &#x2212;0.036. A reflective mask () can be obtained by forming a transfer pattern on the absorber film of the reflective mask blank.

Provided are a reflective mask blank and a reflective mask that can improve the contrast for EUV exposure light in use of the mask and further can improve the pattern resolution at a pattern edge portion of the mask, thereby enabling high-resolution pattern transfer. A reflective mask blank of this invention has a substrate and, further, a multilayer reflective film adapted to reflect the EUV exposure light and an absorber film adapted to absorb the EUV exposure light, which are formed in this order over the substrate. The absorber film is made of a material containing Ta and has a film density of 6.0 to 16.0 g/cm. A reflective mask is obtained by forming a transfer pattern in the absorber film of the reflective mask blank.

Reflective mask blank, method of manufacturing a reflective mask blank and method of manufacturing a reflective mask

A multilayer reflective film coated substrate includes a multilayer under film comprised of Mo/Si alternately-layered films, an intermediate layer in the form of a Si film, and a multilayer reflective film comprised of Mo/Si alternately-layered films for reflecting exposure light. The multilayer under film, the intermediate layer, and the multilayer reflective film are formed on a substrate in this order. Given that a cycle length of the multilayer under film is d bottom (unit:nm), a thickness of the intermediate layer is d Si (unit:nm), and a cycle length of the multilayer reflective film is d top (unit:nm), relationships of a formula (1) and a formula (2) are satisfied, the formula (1) given bytop&#x2212;0.05&#x2266;bottom&#x2266;top+0.05where n is a natural number equal to or greater than 1, and the formula (2) given bytop&#x2212;1.2&#x2266;Si&#x2266;&#x2212;top+1.2where m is an integer equal to or greater than 0.

Multilayer reflective film coated substrate, manufacturing method thereof, reflective mask blank, and reflective mask

A reflective mask blank has a substrate, a multilayer reflective film formed on the substrate to reflect exposure light, a protective film formed on the multilayer reflective film, and an absorber film formed on the protective film to absorb the exposure light. The protective film is made of an Ru compound containing Ru and X (X being at least one kind of material selected from Nb and Zr). The protective film has an oxidized surface layer containing X as a main component. A reflective mask is obtained by forming a transfer pattern by patterning the absorber film of the reflective mask blank.

Reflective mask blank and method of producing the same, and method of producing a reflective mask

A reflective mask blank has a substrate () on which a reflective layer () for reflecting exposure light in a short-wavelength region including an extreme ultraviolet region and an absorber layer () for absorbing the exposure light are successively formed. The absorber layer () has an at least two-layer structure including as a lower layer an exposure light absorbing layer () formed by an absorber for the exposure light in the short-wavelength region including the extreme ultraviolet region and as an upper layer a low-reflectivity layer () formed by an absorber for inspection light used in inspection of a mask pattern. The upper layer is made of a material containing tantalum (Ta), boron (B), and nitrogen (N). The content of B is 5 at % to 30 at %. The ratio of Ta and N (Ta:N) falls within a range of 8:1 to 2:7. Alternatively, the reflective mask blank has a substrate on which a multilayer reflective film and an absorber layer are successively formed. In this case, the absorber layer is made of a material containing tantalum (Ta), boron (B), and nitrogen (N). The content of B is 5 at % to 25 at %. The ratio of Ta and N (Ta:N) falls within a range of 8:1 to 2:7.

Reflective mask blank, reflective mask and methods of producing the mask blank and the mask

A multilayer reflective film coated substrate includes a multilayer under film comprised of Mo/Si alternately-layered films and a multilayer reflective film comprised of Mo/Si alternately-layered films for reflecting exposure light. The multilayer under film and the multilayer reflective film are formed on a substrate in this order. Given that a cycle length of the multilayer under film is d bottom (unit:nm) and a cycle length of the multilayer reflective film is d top (unit:nm), a relationship of a formula (1) is satisfied when d bottom&#x3e;d top, the formula (1) given by(+0.15)&#xd7;top&#x2266;bottom&#x2266;(+0.9)&#xd7;topwhere n is a natural number equal to or greater than 1.

A reflective mask blank and a reflective mask each have, on a multilayer reflective film, a protective film that protects the multilayer reflective film from etching during pattern formation of an absorber layer or a buffer layer formed on the protective film. The protective film is formed by a ruthenium compound containing ruthenium (Ru) and at least one selected from the group consisting of molybdenum (Mo), niobium (Nb), zirconium (Zr), yttrium (Y), boron (B), titanium (Ti), and lanthanum (La). A reflection enhancement film of Ru may be further formed on the surface of the protective film.

Reflective mask blank, reflective mask, and method of manufacturing semiconductor device

Reflection type mask blank and reflection type mask and production methods for them

A method of manufacturing a reflection type mask blank by forming a multilayer reflection film reflecting exposure light on a substrate and forming an absorber layer absorbing the exposure light on the multilayer reflection film includes a step of forming, between the substrate and the multilayer reflection film, a stress correction film opposite in direction to film stress of the multilayer reflection film and smaller in absolute value than the film stress of the multilayer reflection film, a step of heat-treating the stress correction film, and a step of heat-treating the multilayer reflection film.

Method of manufacturing a reflection type mask blank and method of manufacturing a reflection type mask

In a reflection type mask blank for EUV exposure, a multilayer film is formed on a substrate to reflect EUV light. An intermediate layer is formed on the multilayer film. An absorber layer is formed on the intermediate layer to absorb the EUV light. The intermediate layer is formed by a material containing Cr and at least one element selected from the group consisting of N, O, and C.

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Tokyo, Japan

Morio Hosoya