Toppan Printing Co., Ltd.

Shin-etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.

Takashi Haraguchi

Hiroki Yoshikawa

Yukio Inazuki

Satoshi Okazaki

Yuichi Fukushima

Tadashi Saga

Yosuke Kojima

Masahide Iwakata

Kazuaki Chiba

Mikio Takagi

Hideo Kaneko

Ryuji Koitabashi

Yoshinori Kinase

Tomohito Hirose

Toshinobu Ishihara

Kimihiro Okada

Tamotsu Maruyama

Norihito Fukugami

Yo Sakata

Tadashi Matsuo

Hiroshi Kubota

Tooru Komizo

Yoshihiro Ii

Masahito Tanabe

Kinji Okubo

Sathoshi New Functional Materials Research Ctr Okazaki

Hiroki New Functional Materials Res Ctr  Yoshikawa

Yukio New Functional Materials Research Ctr Inazuki

Yoshihiro Il

Yoshinori c/o Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd Kinase

Satoshi c/o Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd Okazaki

Yukio c/o Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd Inazuki

Hiroki c/o Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd Yoshikawa

Horiki Yoshikawa

A reflective mask blank, a reflective mask, and methods for manufacturing those, which suppress reflectance at a light-shielding frame. The reflective mask includes a substrate, a multilayered reflective layer formed on the substrate, an absorption layer formed on the multilayered reflective layer, and a frame-shaped light-shielding frame area at which the absorption layer has a film thickness larger than a film thickness at other areas. The multilayered reflective layer is diffused and mixed at the light-shielding frame area through melting.

Reflective mask blank and reflective mask, and methods for manufacturing reflective mask blank and reflective mask

A light pattern exposure method is by irradiating ArF excimer laser light to a resist film through a halftone phase shift mask. The mask includes a transparent substrate and a pattern of halftone phase shift film of a material comprising a transition metal, silicon, nitrogen and oxygen and having an atomic ratio (Met/Si) of 0.18-0.25, a nitrogen content of 25-50 atom %, and an oxygen content of 5-20 atom %. The mask may be irradiated with ArF excimer laser light in a cumulative dose of at least 10 kJ/cm.

Light pattern exposure method, halftone phase shift mask, and halftone phase shift mask blank

A light pattern exposure method is by irradiating ArF excimer laser light to a resist film through a photomask. The photomask includes a transparent substrate and a pattern of optical film of a material comprising a transition metal, silicon, nitrogen and oxygen, with contents thereof falling in a specific range. The photomask may be irradiated with ArF excimer laser light in a cumulative dose of at least 10 kJ/cm.

Light pattern exposure method, photomask, and photomask blank

A photomask blank has a film of a transition metal/silicon base material comprising a transition metal, silicon, oxygen and nitrogen, having an oxygen content of at least 3 atom %, and satisfying the formula: 4&#xd7;C/100&#x2212;6&#xd7;C/100&#x3e;1 wherein Cis a silicon content in atom % and Cis a transition metal content in atom %.

Photomask blank and making method, photomask, light pattern exposure method, and design method of transition metal/silicon base material film

A photomask blank is provided comprising an etch stop film which is disposed on a transparent substrate and is resistant to fluorine dry etching and removable by chlorine dry etching, a light-shielding film disposed on the etch stop film and including at least one layer composed of a transition metal/silicon material, and an antireflective film disposed on the light-shielding film. When the light-shielding film is dry etched to form a pattern, pattern size variation arising from pattern density dependency is reduced, so that a photomask is produced at a high accuracy.

Photomask blank and photomask

A photomask blank to be used as a material for a photomask is provided with a mask pattern having a transparent area and an effectively opaque area to exposure light on a transparent substrate. On the transparent board, one or more layers of light shielding films are formed with or without other film (A) in between, at least one layer (B) which constitutes the light shielding film includes silicon and a transition metal as main component, and a molar ratio of silicon to the transition metal is silicon:metal=4-15:1 (atomic ratio). The photomask provided with the mask pattern having the transparent area and the effectively opaque area to exposure light on the transparent board is also provided.

A photomask blank comprises a transparent substrate, a light-shielding film deposited on the substrate and comprising a metal or metal compound susceptible to fluorine dry etching, and an etching mask film deposited on the light-shielding film and comprising another metal or metal compound resistant to fluorine dry etching. When the light-shielding film is dry etched to form a pattern, pattern size variation arising from pattern density dependency is reduced, so that a photomask is produced at a high accuracy.

Photomask blank and photomask making method

A photomask blank has a light-shielding film composed of a single layer of a material containing a transition metal, silicon and nitrogen or a plurality of layers that include at least one layer made of a material containing a transition metal, silicon and nitrogen, and has one or more chrome-based material film. The high transition metal content ensures electrical conductivity, preventing charge-up in the photomask production process, and also provides sufficient chemical stability to cleaning in photomask production. The light-shielding film has a good resistance to dry etching of the chrome-based material film in the presence of chlorine and oxygen, thus ensuring a high processing accuracy.

Photomask blank

A light-shielding film for exposure light is formed on one principal plane of a transparent substrate made of quartz or the like that serves as a photomask substrate. The light-shielding film can serve not only as the so-called 'light-shielding film' but also as an anti-reflection film. In addition, the light-shielding film has a total thickness of 100 nm or less, 70% or more of which is accounted for by the thickness of a chromium compound that has an optical density (OD) per unit thickness of 0.025 nmfor light having a wavelength of 450 nm. In the case where the photomask blank is used for fabricating a mask designed for ArF exposure, the thickness and composition of the light-shielding film are selected in such a manner that the OD of the light-shielding film is 1.2 to 2.3 for 193 or 248 nm wavelength light.

Photomask blank, photomask and fabrication method thereof

A light-shieldable film is formed on one principal plane of an optically transparent substrate, and the light-shieldable film has a first light-shieldable film and a second light-shieldable film overlying the first light-shieldable film. The first light-shieldable film is a film that is not substantially etched by fluorine-based (F-based) dry etching and is primarily composed of chromium oxide, chromium nitride, chromium oxynitride or the like. The second light-shieldable film is a film that is primarily composed of a silicon-containing compound that can be etched by F-based dry etching, such as silicon oxide, silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, silicon/transition-metal oxide, silicon/transition-metal nitride or silicon/transition-metal oxynitride.

A metal film is provided as a light shielding layer on one principle surface of a photomask substrate. The metal film cannot be substantially etched by chlorine-based dry etching containing oxygen ((Cl+O)-based dry etching) and can be etched by chlorine-based dry etching not containing oxygen (Cl-based dry etching) and fluorine-based dry etching (F-based dry etching). On the light shielding layer, a metal compound film as an antireflective layer. The metal compound film cannot be substantially etched by chlorine-based dry etching not containing oxygen (Cl based) and can be etched by at least one of chlorine-based dry etching containing oxygen ((Cl+O) based) and fluorine-based dry etching (F based).

Photomask blank, photomask and method for producing those

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Tokyo, Japan

Takashi Haraguchi