Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Yi-Zhen Chen

Li-Jui Chen

Tzung-Chi Fu

Han-Lung Chang

Cheng-Yi Huang

Ching-Hou Su

Yen-Hsun Chen

Jhan-Hong Yeh

Chih-Pin Wang

Chao-Li Shih

Tsung-Jen Yang

In an embodiment, a magnetic assembly includes: an inner permeance annulus; and an outer permeance annulus connected to the inner permeance annulus via magnets, wherein the outer permeance annulus comprises a peak region with a thickness greater than other regions of the outer permeance annulus.

Permeance magnetic assembly

A reticle carrier described herein is configured to quickly discharge the residual charge on a reticle so as to reduce, minimize, and/or prevent particles in the reticle carrier from being attracted to and/or transferred to the reticle. In particular, the reticle carrier may be configured to provide reduced capacitance between an inner baseplate of the reticle carrier and the reticle. The reduction in capacitance may reduce the resistance-capacitance (RC) time constant for discharging the residual charge on the reticle, which may increase the discharge speed for discharging the residual charge through support pins of the reticle carrier. The increase in discharge speed may reduce the likelihood that an electrostatic force in the reticle carrier may attract particles in the reticle carrier to the reticle. This may reduce pattern defects transferred to substrates that are patterned using the reticle, may increase semiconductor device manufacturing quality and yield, and may reduce scrap and rework of semiconductor devices and/or wafers.

Reticle carrier and associated methods

An EUV photolithography system utilizes a baseplate of an EUV pod to unload an EUV reticle from a chuck within an EUV scanner. The baseplate includes a top surface and support pins extending from the top surface. The when the reticle is unloaded onto the baseplate, the support pins hold the reticle at relatively large distance from the top surface of the baseplate. The support pins have a relatively low resistance. The large distance and low resistance help ensure that particles do not travel from the baseplate to the reticle during unloading.

System and method of discharging an EUV mask

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Hsin-Chu, Taiwan

Yi-Zhen Chen