Shin-etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.

Yoshihiko Nagata

Meguru Kashida

Yoshihiro Kubota

Hitoshi Noguchi

Yuichi Hamada

Toru Shirasaki

Satoshi Kawakami

Sakae Kawaguchi

Shinichi Sato

Hiroshi Inomata

Kimitaka Kumagae

Mitsuru Hayamizu

A pellicle is proposed wherein the mask-bonding agglutinant layer coated on one annular face of the pellicle frame is designed to have a cross-section which is trapezoidal (including the case of rectangle) so that the angle alpha (&#x3b1;) included between the side wall of the agglutinant layer and said annular face is 90 degrees or smaller.

Pellicle for lithography and a method of making thereof

There is provided a method for air-tightly enclosing a pellicle case in a filmy bag which protects the pellicle case against dust without the use of a plurality of bags or without modifying the filmy bag except for folding it like origami and eventually consolidating with an adhesive material: in short the opening of the bag is folded a number of times compactly.

Method for hermetically closing an air-tight bag for pellicle

There is provided a pellicle in which the frame is chamfered along all of its horizontal edges (as viewed when the pellicle frame is laid flat), and in particular those edges of the frame where the membrane-bonding frame face meets the external side walls of the frame are chamfered to the extent of C:0.01 mm-C:0.12 mm; in relation to this chamfer, a method is also provided wherein, after attaching a preformed pellicle membrane to the membrane-bonding frame face, the excessive part of the preformed membrane which extends beyond outer edges of the frame face is cut off in a manner wherein a blade of a knife is caused to scour the chamfer over the membrane in a manner such that the knife blade is kept in such an angle that the blade gets in a face-to-face contact with the chamfer face or that the blade touches only that edge of the frame where the chamfer face meets the first frame face while the knife blade is moved along the chamfered edge of the frame.

Pellicle for lithography and a method for making the same

There is provided a pellicle for photolithography having a plurality of air vents formed in a pellicle frame for photolithography and having the air vents covered with a dustproof filter in which the air vents in the frame are counterbored and a counterbored wall surface of the air vents is tapered.

Pellicle for photolithography

There is disclosed a pelliclefor photolithography comprising, a pellicle framefor constituting a pellicle for photolithography, wherein the frame is made of an aluminum alloy whose surface is anodized, and each content of sulfate ion, nitrate ion, chlorine ion, and organic acid (total of oxalic acid, formic acid, and acetic acid) is 1.1 ppm or less in elution concentration after immersed in 100 ml of pure water at 25&#xb0; C. for 168 hours, per 100 cmof a surface area of the frame, and a pellicle filmthat is adhered to one end face of the frame. Thereby, there can be provided a pellicle that can effectively prevent haze from being generated on a mask substrate even in a photolithography process with a wavelength being shorter.

Pellicle for photolithography and pellicle frame

There is disclosed a pellicle for lithography comprising a pellicle film, a pellicle frame to which the pellicle film is adhered, and a sticking layer placed on another end face of the pellicle frame, wherein the pellicle film consists of multi-layer structure of fluorine-doped silica and fluorocarbon resin. Thereby, there is provided a pellicle for lithography which has high transmittance and high light stability against light of short wavelength such as far-ultraviolet light in a range of 200-300 nm and especially vacuum ultraviolet light of 200 nm or less, and is sufficiently practicable.

Pellicle for lithography

There is provided a pellicle for lithography which has at least, a pellicle film for dustproof protection, a pellicle frame to which the pellicle film is adhered, an adhesive layer provided on one end face of the pellicle frame in order to adhere the pellicle film, and a sticking layer formed on another end face of the pellicle frame, wherein the pellicle film is formed by a die coating machine and a method for producing it. There can be provided a relatively large-sized pellicle for lithography which has a pellicle film with little unevenness of film thickness and with a uniform and high light transmission can be produced easily and at low cost, compared with those using the conventional spin coater.

Method for producing a pellicle for lithography

In an inspection method for a transparent object, a transparent object is irradiated with light from a light source, and the surface or interior of the transparent object is inspected by observing transmitted light on the side of the transparent object that is opposite to the light source. An inspection apparatus for a transparent object includes a transparent-object-moving unit, an irradiation unit, and a detection unit. The transparent-object-moving unit moves a transparent object to an inspection position and fixes the transparent object in the inspection position. The irradiation unit emits light from a light source disposed on one side of the transparent object so as to irradiate light onto the transparent object fixed in the inspection position by the transparent-object-moving unit. The detection unit is located on the side of the transparent object opposite the light source and has a detector for detecting light that has been emitted from the light source and has passed through the transparent object. The inspection method and the inspection apparatus realize improved inspection accuracy and inspection efficiency.

Method, apparatus, and system for inspecting transparent objects

Disclosed is a frame-supported pellicle, which is an integral body consisting of a rigid frame and a transparent plastic film adhesively bonded to one end surface of the frame in a slack-free fashion, for dustproof protection of a photomask used in a photolithographic patterning work in the manufacture of fine electronic devices such as LSIs and liquid crystal display panels. The frame-supported pellicle is prepared by bonding the frame and plastic film with an adhesive having a glass transition temperature substantially lower than that of the polymeric resin forming the film and the adhesive bonding work is performed at a temperature higher than the glass transition temperature of the adhesive but lower than that of the polymeric resin of the film so that excellent adhesive bonding strength can be obtained between the frame and the resin film still without causing any adverse influences on the resin film such as distortion and crease formation.

Frame-supported pellicle for dustproof protection of photomask in

Disclosed is a frame-supported pellicle for dust-proofing of a photolithographic photomask used for patteriwse light exposure in the manufacturing process of, for example, semiconductor devices, which comprises (a) a frame member, (b) a transparent polymeric film supported by the frame member and (c) a coating layer of a sticky adhesive on one surface of the polymeric film to capture any dust particles in the space between the photomask and the pellicle. The inventive pellicle is imparted with a greatly improved serviceable life with stability against ultraviolet irradiation relative to the adhesive coating layer which is formed from a specific organo-polysiloxane-based adhesive composition.

Pellicle for protection of photolithographic mask

Proposed is an improved frame-supported pellicle, which is an integral body consisting of a rigid frame, a transparent plastic resin film adhesively bonded to one end surface of the frame in a slack-free fashion and a layer of a pressure-sensitive adhesive on the other end surface of the frame. The improvement consists in the use of a specific pressure-sensitive adhesive capable of being imparted with a greatly decreased bonding strength when it is heated at a temperature higher than a critical temperature or irradiated with UV light in a dose exceeding a critical dose so as to facilitate demounting of the frame-supported pellicle from a photomask on which the pellicle is mounted when it is to be replaced with a new pellicle without leaving any fragments of the adhesive adherent to the photomask surface.

Frame-supported pellicle for dustproof protection of photomask

An improvement is proposed for a frame-supported pellicle for dustproof protection of a photomask, which consists of a rigid frame and a transparent plastic membrane adhesively bonded to one end surface of the frame in a slack-free fashion, used in the photolithographic patterning work for the manufacture of fine electronic parts and devices. The improvement is obtained by coating the whole surface of the pellicle frame with a coating composition by the method of electrodeposition so as to completely solve the heretofore unavoidable problem by the dust particle deposition on the pellicle membrane during transportation and handling.

An improvement is proposed for a frame-supported pellicle for dustproof protection of a photomask, which consists of a rigid frame and a transparent plastic membrane adhesively bonded to one end surface of the frame in a slack-free fashion, used in the photolithographic patterning work for the manufacture of fine electronic parts and devices. The improvement is obtained by providing the whole surface of the pellicle frame made from an alluminum alloy with a metallic plating layer of nickel or chromium so as to completely solve the heretofore unavoidable problem by the dust particle deposition on the pellicle membrane during transportation and handling as a consequence of dust particle formation by contacting with the inner surface of the holder case by virtue of the extremely high smoothness of the metal-plated frame surface.

Proposed is a novel frame-supported pellicle for dust-proof protection of a photomask used in the photolithographic patterning work in the manufacture of semiconductor devices and the like. The frame-supported pellicle of the invention consists of a pellicle membrane made from a specific fluorocarbon-containing polymer which is adhesively bonded in a slack-free fashion to a surface of a rigid pellicle frame by means of a hot-melt adhesive which is a fluorocarbon-containing polymer of the same type as or similar to the fluorocarbon-containing polymer of the membrane so that no problems are involved in the adhesive bonding relative to the compatibility between the adhesive and the membrane which otherwise is poorly susceptible to adhesive bonding.

Growing community of inventors

Gunma, Japan

Yoshihiko Nagata