Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.

Souichi Fukaya

Yukio Inazuki

Hideo Nakagawa

Kouhei Sasamoto

Hiroki Yoshikawa

Hideo Kaneko

Tsuneo Yamamoto

Shinichi Igarashi

Takashi Yoshii

A halftone phase shift photomask blank has on a transparent substrate, a first film serving as a halftone phase shift film, a second film serving as a light shielding film, a third film serving as a hard mask film, and a fourth film. The first and third films are formed of silicon-containing materials which are resistant to chlorine base dry etching and removable by fluorine base dry etching. The second and fourth films are formed of silicon-free, chromium-containing materials which are resistant to fluorine base dry etching and removable by chlorine base dry etching.

Halftone phase shift photomask blank

A photomask blank has on a transparent substrate, an optional first film, a second film, a third film, and a fourth film. The first and third films are formed of silicon-containing materials which are resistant to chlorine base dry etching and removable by fluorine base dry etching. The second and fourth films are formed of chromium-containing materials which are resistant to fluorine base dry etching and removable by chlorine base dry etching. An etching clear time of the fourth film is longer than an etching clear time of the second film, on chlorine base dry etching.

Photomask blank

In a chamber (), a quartz substrate () having a main surface on which an optical film () is formed is put on a susceptor (). A flash lamp () is housed in a lamp house (), and the optical film () is irradiated with flash light through two quartz plates (and). A transmittance adjustment region () is formed on a surface of the quartz plate () of the two quartz plates (and), and the amount of light with which the optical film () is irradiated has in-plane distribution. If the optical film () is irradiated with the flash light, optical characteristics of the optical film () change depending on the received irradiation energy. Hence, for example, the characteristics of the optical film are not uniform, the optical film is irradiated with flash light having such irradiation energy distribution that cancels the in-plane distribution.

Method of manufacturing photomask blank and photomask blank

A hard mask filmprovided on substrateis formed by tin-containing chromium-containing material. In the chromium-containing material including tin, which forms the hard mask film, the etching resistance to fluorine-containing dry etching is equal to or higher than the etching resistance of the tin-free chromium-containing material, and it shows a significantly high etching rate as compared with a chromium-containing material free of tin under conditions for chlorine-containing dry etching. As a result, the time for chlorine-containing dry etching is shortened, and damage to a resist pattern is reduced. Thus, high-precision pattern transfer can be performed. The present invention provides a novel technique for increasing etching process-ability by increasing a dry-etching rate of a hard mask film made of a chromium-containing material while assuring a hard mask function of the hard mask film.

Blank for mold production and method for manufacturing mold

A photomask blank comprising a transparent substrate (), an etching stop film (), a light-shielding film (), and an etching mask film () has on the substrate side a reflectance of up to 35% with respect to exposure light. The etching stop film () consists of a first layer () which is disposed contiguous to the substrate and functions as an antireflective layer and a second layer () functioning as a fluorine-base dry etching-resistant layer, one of the first and second layers is a layer having compressive stress and the other is a layer having tensile stress.

Photomask blank, making method, and photomask

In a photomask blank comprising a transparent substrate, a resistance layer, and a conductive layer, the resistivity and thickness of the conductive layer and the resistivity and thickness of the resistance layer are selected so as to meet a specific equation (1). In EB lithography, a ground can be established at a necessary fully low resistance value, and EB writing be carried out at a high accuracy.

Photomask blank and method for preparing photomask

An inorganic material film containing tin within the concentration range of 0.1 atomic percent or higher but no higher than 11.5 atomic percent eliminates the problem in which tin localizes and forms into particles, with the result that these particles turn into defects in an optical film. An inorganic material film for a photomask blank according to the present invention film-formed by sputtering and composed of a chromium-containing material includes a light-shielding layer having electrical conductivity, wherein the light-shielding layer contains 0.1 atomic percent or higher but no higher than 11.5 atomic percent of tin and no higher than 15 atomic percent of oxygen. The lower limit of oxygen concentration is, for example, 3 atomic percent. The inorganic material film has electrical conductivity, which is preferably no higher than 5000 &#x3a9;/cmwhen evaluated in terms of resistance values.

Inorganic material film, photomask blank, and method for manufacturing photomask

A method for designing a photomask blank comprising a transparent substrate and an optical film thereon is provided. The photomask blank is processed into a transmissive photomask having a pattern of optical film such that the film pattern may be transferred when exposure light is transmitted by the photomask. The optical film is selected using a specific reflectance, which is equal to the reflectance divided by the film thickness, as an index.

Designing of photomask blank and photomask blank

A photomask blank includes a chromium-based material film as a hard mask film containing at least one selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, wherein a ratio (A/B) of etching rates per unit film thickness is in a range from 0.7 to 0.9, and the chromium-based material film has a tensile stress or compressive stress corresponding to an amount of warp of up to 70 nm. The present invention provides a photomask blank having a thin film of chromium-based material which is enhanced in etch resistance and lowered in film stress. This enables high-accuracy patterning of a chromium-based material film.

The method for manufacturing a photomask blank according to the present invention, when manufacturing a photomask blank having at least one functional layer on a transparent substrate, in a step of film-formation of such a functional film where the functional film includes a chromium-containing element and an a metallic element that is capable of bringing a mixture of the metallic element and the chromium into a liquid phase at a temperature of 400&#xb0; C. or lower, a chromium target (target A) and a target (target B) mainly containing at least one kind of the metallic element are simultaneously sputtered (co-sputtered). The present invention provides a technique for manufacturing a functional film having a small variation in its characteristics such as optical density and a low detect, and showing a high etching rate.

Photomask blank manufacturing method, photomask blank, photomask, and pattern transfer method

A photomask blank includes a chromium-based material film as a light-shielding film, wherein the chromium-based material film has an optical density per unit thickness at a wavelength of 193 nm of at least 0.050/nm, and the chromium-based material film has a tensile stress or compressive stress corresponding to an amount of warp of up to 50 nm. The present invention provides a photomask blank having a thin film of chromium-based material which is lowered in film stress while retaining a high optical density per unit film thickness. This enables high-accuracy patterning of a chromium-based material film.

A photomask blank comprising a transparent substrate and a chromium-containing film deposited thereon is provided. The chromium-containing film comprises at least one CrC compound layer comprising up to 50 at % of Cr, at least 25 at % of O and/or N, and at least 5 at % of C. From the blank, a photomask having a photomask pattern formed on the substrate is produced, the photomask being used in photolithography of forming a resist pattern with a line width of up to 0.1 &#x3bc;m, using exposure light having a wavelength of up to 250 nm.

In the chromium-containing material film of the present invention, an element is added thereto and is capable of bringing a mixture of the element and the chromium into a liquid phase at a temperature of 400&#xb0; C. or lower. The use of such a chromium-containing material film as an optical film (e.g., a light-shielding film, an etching mask film, or an etching stopper film) of a photo mask blank can achieve an improvement in chlorine-dry etching while retaining the same optical characteristics and the like as those of the conventional chromium-containing material film, thereby increasing the patterning precision.

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Niigata, Japan

Souichi Fukaya