Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.

Tsuneo Terasawa

Yukio Inazuki

Hideo Kaneko

Takuro Kosaka

Daisuke Iwai

Takahiro Kishita

Hiroshi Fukuda

Atsushi Yokohata

Kazuhiro Nishikawa

Shohei Mimura

Shigeo Irie

Ryusei Terashima

Takumi Yoshino

A reflective mask blank that is a material for a reflective mask used in EUV lithography using EUV light as exposure light, including a substrate, a multilayer reflection film that is formed on one main surface of the substrate and reflects the exposure light, and an absorber film containing tungsten, and another metal, a metalloid or a light element that is formed on the multilayer reflection film and absorbs the exposure light.

Reflective mask blank and reflective mask

A defect inspection apparatus has a defect detection unitthat acquires first defect information on a defect of a photomask blank MB as a substrate; and a comparative information acquisition unitthat acquires a result of comparison between predetermined defect information stored in a storage unitand the first defect information.

Defect inspection apparatus, method for inspecting defect, and method for manufacturing photomask blank

A substrate with a multilayer reflection film for an EUV mask blank including a substrate, and a multilayer reflection film formed on the substrate is provided. The multilayer reflection film includes a Si/Mo laminated portion and a protection layer containing Ru and including a lower layer composed of Ru, and an upper layer composed of a material containing Ru and at least one selected from the group consisting of metals other than Ru, and metalloids.

Substrate with multilayer reflection film for EUV mask blank, manufacturing method thereof, and EUV mask blank

A substrate with a multilayer reflection film for an EUV mask blank including a substrate, and a multilayer reflection film formed on the substrate is provided. The multilayer reflection film includes a Si/Mo laminated portion in which Si layers and Mo layers are alternately laminated, and a layer containing Si and N intervenes at one or more portions between the Si layer and the Mo layer of the Si/Mo laminated portion, and is contact with both of the Si layer and the Mo layer.

A reflective mask blank including a substrate, a multilayer reflection film consisting of at least two first layers and at least two second layers that are laminated alternatively and having different optical properties each other, and an absorber film are manufactured by a sputtering method. Each layer is formed by two stages consisting of a first stage applied from when the forming of each layer is started and until a prescribed thickness is formed, and a second stage applied from when the prescribed thickness is formed and until the forming of each layer is completed, and a sputtering pressure of the first stage is set to higher than both a sputtering pressure at which the forming of the layer formed just before is completed, and a sputtering pressure of the second stage.

Method of manufacturing reflective mask blank, and reflective mask blank

A substrate defect inspection method includes: irradiating a target substrate with an EUV beam from an EUV illumination source by using a first focusing optical system; guiding a scattered reflected beam, but no specularly-reflected beam, among beams reflected from the target substrate to a light receiving surface of a sensor by using a second focusing optical system; and determining that a defect is present at an irradiation spot of the target substrate with the EUV beam when an intensity of the received scattered reflected beam exceeds a predetermined threshold; the method further including, before the irradiation of the target substrate with the EUV beam: a reflectance acquisition step of acquiring a reflectance of the target substrate to the EUV beam; and a threshold computation step of setting the predetermined threshold based on the reflectance acquired in the reflectance acquisition step.

Substrate defect inspection method and substrate defect inspection apparatus

A reflective mask blank including a substrate, and a multilayer reflection film for EUV light reflection, a protection film, and an absorber film for EUV light absorption formed on one main surface of the substrate in this order from the substrate side, and a conductive film formed on another main surface of the substrate, a coordinate reference mark is formed on the other main surface side.

Method of manufacturing reflective mask blank, reflective mask blank, and method of manufacturing reflective mask

A photomask blank is processed into a transmissive photomask for use in photolithography for forming a pattern on a recipient using exposure light. The photomask blank comprises a transparent substrate, a first film of a material which is etchable by chlorine/oxygen-based dry etching, and a second film of a silicon-containing material. The second film includes a layer having a refractive index n of at least 1.6 or an extinction coefficient k of at least 0.3 with respect to the wavelength of inspection light which is longer than the exposure light.

Photomask blank and making method

A defect classification method in accordance with the present invention uses two types of images output from the defect inspection device(i.e., the first inspection image generated from a luminance signal sequentially output from a detector SE and the second inspection image generated from a difference of the signals from an adjacent portion in a region where the defect exists). The first inspection image includes information for discriminating unevenness of the defective shape. Also, while it is difficult to discriminate unevenness of the defective shape by the second inspection image, the second inspection image includes information on a luminance distribution emphasizing a defective section. The region of the defective section is extracted from the second inspection image to be applied to the first inspection image and thereby define an arithmetic processing area, and the image processing is performed within the arithmetic processing area to compute a feature amount.

Defect classification method, method of sorting photomask blanks, and method of manufacturing mask blank

A photomask blank having a thin film on a transparent substrate is inspected for defects by irradiating inspection light to a surface region of the blank, collecting the reflected light from the irradiated region via an inspection optical system to form a magnified image of the region, extracting a feature parameter of light intensity distribution from the magnified image, and identifying the bump/pit shape of the defect based on the feature parameter combined with the structure of the thin film. The defect inspection method is effective for discriminating defects of bump or pit shape in a highly reliable manner. On application of the defect inspection method, photomask blanks having no pinhole defects are available at lower costs and higher yields.

Methods for defect inspection, sorting, and manufacturing photomask blank

Disclosed is a method of inspecting a defect present at a surface portion of a photomask blank which includes an optical film, and a thin film. The method includes: selecting and designating an inspection treatment procedure and a criterion for determination of rugged shape of the defect which correspond to modes of the optical film and the thin film of the photomask blank; applying inspection light to a region including the defect while maintaining a distance between the defect and an objective lens of an inspecting optical system, based on the designated inspection treatment procedure, and collecting reflected light from the region irradiated with the inspection light, as a magnified image of the region, through the inspecting optical system; and determining the rugged shape of the defect, from light intensity distribution of the magnified image, based on the designated criterion for determination.

Defect inspecting method, sorting method and producing method for photomask blank

A method of inspecting a defect present at a surface portion of a photomask blank having at least one thin film formed on a substrate by use of the inspecting optical system. The method includes setting the distance between the defect and an objective lens of an inspecting optical system to a defocus distance, applying inspection light to the defect through the objective lens, collecting reflected light from the region irradiated with the inspection light, through the objective lens, as a magnified image, identifying a light intensity variation portion of the magnified image, and determining the rugged shape of the defect on the basis of a variation in light intensity of the light intensity variation portion of the magnified image.

Defect inspecting method, sorting method, and producing method for photomask blank

The defect size of a photomask blank is evaluated. An inspection-target photomask blank is irradiated with inspection light and reflected light of the region of the inspection-target photomask blank irradiated with the inspection light is collected through an objective lens of an inspection optical system as a magnified image of the region. Then, an intensity change part in the light intensity distribution profile of the magnified image is identified. Next, a difference in the light intensity of the intensity change part is obtained and the width of the intensity change part is obtained as the apparent width of the defect. Then, the width of the defect is calculated on the basis of a predetermined conversion expression showing the relationship among the difference in the light intensity, the apparent width of the defect, and the actual width of the defect, and the width of the defect is estimated.

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Joetsu, Japan

Tsuneo Terasawa