Asahi Glass Company, Limited

Sematech, Inc.

Other

Agc Inc.

Yoshiaki Ikuta

Shinya Kikugawa

Noriaki Shimodaira

Shuhei Yoshizawa

Akio Masui

Toshiyuki Uno

Ken Ebihara

Masaki Mikami

Hiroshi Nakanishi

Abbas Rastegar

Yuzo Okamura

Noriyuki Agata

Mitsuhiko Komakine

Hiroshi Kojima

Hideo Hosono

Takashi Sugiyama

Tohru Ogawa

Masabumi Ito

Tomonori Ogawa

Hitoshi Mishiro

Junichi Kageyama

Kaname Okada

Mika Yokoyama

Katsuhiro Matsumoto

Hiroshi Arishima

Kouji Otsuka

David Krick

Hsing Chign Ma

To provide a reflective mask blank for EUV lithography which is excellent in flatness, whereby the deterioration of the overlay accuracy at the time of pattern transfer can be relatively easily corrected, and the deterioration of the overlay accuracy due to the flatness is small. A reflective mask blank for EUVL, which is a reflective mask blank for EUV lithography having a reflective layer for reflecting EUV light and an absorber layer for absorbing EUV light formed in this order on the main surface of a substrate and having a conductive film formed on the rear surface opposite to the main surface, of the substrate, wherein when the shapes of quality-guaranteed regions of the main surface and the rear surface of the reflective mask blank for EUVL are measured by a laser interferometer, and the measured values obtained are fitted to quadratic function, the proportion of the quadratic function components is at least 35%, and the flatness at the quality-guaranteed regions of the main surface and the rear surface is at most 600 nm.

Reflective mask blank for EUV lithography

A process for inspecting an EUV mask blank capable of distinguishing phase defects and amplitude defects and capable of detecting small amplitude defects, a process for producing an EUV mask blank using the inspection process, and an EUV mask blank obtainable by such a process. A process for inspecting a reflective mask blank for EUV lithography having a multilayer reflective film and an absorber layer. The process includes a first step of detecting in-plane defects in the multilayer reflective film by applying EUV light to the surface of the multilayer reflective film, a second step of detecting in-plane defects from the absorber layer by applying light having a wavelength of from 150 to 600 nm to the surface of the absorber layer, and a step of distinguishing phase defects and amplitude defects in the reflective mask blank by comparison between the first and second in-plane defect data.

Reflective mask blank for EUV lithography, and process for its inspection and process for its production

A method of manufacturing a reflective mask blank for EUV lithography with a resist film, includes preparing a reflective mask blank provided with three or more concave or convex fiducial marks each formed by at least two lines placed to extend along any one of virtual lines that cross at an intersection point, at least one of the lines of the fiducial mark being placed to extend along each of the virtual lines; forming a resist film on the reflective mask blank; detecting fiducial positions corresponding to the intersection points of the fiducial marks by scanning with an electron beam or an ultraviolet light; and exposing specific areas of the resist film including circular areas centered at the fiducial positions of the respective fiducial marks with a radius of 1.5W, where W is the maximum value of a width of the line of the respective fiducial marks.

Reflective mask blank for EUV lithography, method of manufacturing thereof, reflective mask for EUV lithography and method of manufacturing thereof

Provided are an EUV mask blank in which deterioration in reflectivity due to oxidation of a Ru protective layer is prevented, a reflective layer-equipped substrate to be used for producing the EUV mask blank, and a process for producing the reflective layer-equipped substrate. A reflective layer-equipped substrate for EUV lithography comprising a substrate, and a reflective layer for reflecting EUV light and a protective layer for protecting the reflective layer, formed in this order on the substrate, wherein the reflective layer is a Mo/Si multilayer reflective film, the protective layer is a Ru layer or a Ru compound layer, and an intermediate layer containing from 0.5 to 25 at % of nitrogen and from 75 to 99.5 at % of Si is formed between the reflective layer and the protective layer.

Reflective layer-equipped substrate for EUV lithography, reflective mask blank for EUV lithography, reflective mask for EUV lithography, and process for production of the reflective layer-equipped substrate

The present invention relates to a multilayer substrate containing a substrate and a multilayer film provided on the substrate, in which a concave or convex fiducial mark that indicates a fiducial position of the multilayer substrate is formed on the surface of the multilayer film on the opposite side to the side of the substrate; and a material of at least a part of the surface of the fiducial mark is different from a material of a most superficial layer of the multilayer film on the opposite side to the side of the substrate.

Multilayer substrate, manufacturing method for multilayer substrate, and quality control method for multilayer substrate

The present invention relates to a reflective mask blank containing in this order, a substrate, a multilayer reflective film that reflects exposure light, and an absorber layer that absorbs the exposure light, in which the reflective mask blank further contains a fiducial mark indicating a reference position of the multilayer reflective film, which is formed in a concave shape or in a convex shape on a surface of the multilayer reflective film or on a surface of one layer formed between the multilayer reflective film and the absorber layer, and the fiducial mark is formed so as to have a reflectivity different from an area surrounding the fiducial mark with respect to a light with a prescribed wavelength and is transferred to a layer formed on the fiducial mark.

Reflecting mask blank, method for manufacturing reflective mask blank and method for quality control for reflective mask blank

Provided are a multilayer mirror for EUVL in which deterioration in reflectivity due to oxidation of a Ru protective layer is prevented, and a process for its production. A multilayer mirror for EUV lithography comprising a substrate, and a reflective layer for reflecting EUV light and a protective layer for protecting the reflective layer, formed in this order on the substrate, wherein the reflective layer is a Mo/Si multilayer reflective film, the protective layer is a Ru layer or a Ru compound layer, and an intermediate layer containing from 0.5 to 25 at % of nitrogen and from 75 to 99.5 at % of Si is formed between the reflective layer and the protective layer.

Multilayer mirror for EUV lithography and process for its production

The present invention relates to a method for producing an optical member base material for EUVL, comprising performing the following in this order to obtain an optical member base material for EUVL: a preliminary-polishing step of preliminarily polishing a film forming surface and a back surface of the film forming surface of a glass substrate; a measuring step of measuring a total thickness distribution and a flatness of the glass substrate; and a corrective-polishing step of locally polishing only the back surface of the glass substrate depending on the measurement result of the measuring step.

Optical member base material for EUV lithography, and method for producing same

A process for producing a synthetic silica glass optical component which contains at least 1&#xd7;10molecules/cmand has an OH concentration of at most 200 ppm and substantially no reduction type defects, by treating a synthetic silica glass having a hydrogen molecule content of less than 1&#xd7;10molecules/cmat a temperature of from 300 to 600&#xb0; C. in a hydrogen gas-containing atmosphere at a pressure of from 2 to 30 atms.

Synthetic silica glass optical component and process for its production

Provision of an EUV mask whereby influence of EUV reflected light from an absorber film surface in the peripheral portion of a mask pattern region is suppressed at a time of carrying out EUV lithography; an EUV mask blank to be employed for producing the above EUV mask; and a process for producing the EUV mask blank. A process for producing a reflective mask blank for EUV lithography (EUVL), comprising alternately laminating a high refractive index film and a low refractive index film on a substrate to form a multilayer reflective film for reflecting EUV light and forming an absorber layer for absorbing EUV light on the multilayer reflective film,

Reflective mask blank for EUV lithography, process for producing the same and mask for EUV lithography

The present invention provides an apparatus and a method for an ultraviolet cleaning tool. The cleaning tool includes ultraviolet source spaced apart from a surface having contaminant particles. The ultraviolet source can create ozone between the surface and the ultraviolet source which breaks the chemical bonds between particles and the surface. The apparatus includes a gas feed which introduces a gas to aid the chemical bond. Additionally, the gas feed can introduce a gas to remove the particles from the surface.

Method and apparatus for an in-situ ultraviolet cleaning tool

A method for removing inorganic foreign matters from the surface of a substrate made of silicon or glass or the surface of an inorganic coating formed on the surface of the substrate, which includes applying a light beam in a wavelength range which makes the light absorption coefficient of at least one of a material of the substrate, a material of the inorganic coating and the inorganic foreign matters be at least 0.01/cm, to the surface of the substrate or to the surface of the inorganic coating in an application amount of at least 10 J/cmin an oxygen- or ozone-containing atmosphere, and exposing the surface of the substrate or the surface of the inorganic coating having a negative surface potential to an acidic solution having a pH &#x2266;6.

Method for removing foreign matter from substrate surface

A reflective mask blank for EUV lithography including a substrate having a front surface and a rear surface, a reflective layer formed over the front surface of the substrate, an absorbing layer formed over the reflective layer, and a chucking layer formed on the rear surface of the substrate and positioned to chuck the substrate to an electrostatic chuck. The substrate has a non-conducting portion which eliminates electrical conduction between the reflective layer and the chucking layer and electrical conduction between the absorbing layer and the chucking layer, and the non-conducting portion is formed by forming a portion of the substrate covered with one or more covering members and preventing formation of the reflective layer and the absorbing layer.

Reflective-type mask blank for EUV lithography

There is provided a process for smoothing a substrate surface having a concave defect, such as a pit or a scratch. A process for smoothing a surface of a glass substrate for a reflective mask blank used in EUV lithography, comprising disposing a thin film on a glass substrate; detecting a concave defect existing on the glass substrate; and locally heating or locally anodizing a portion of the thin film just above the detected concave defect to perform a chemical reaction accompanied by a volume increase in a material forming the thin film.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Yoshiaki Ikuta