The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 23, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 01, 2000
San-De Tzu, Taipei, TW;
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd., Hsin Chu, TW;
Abstract
Within a method for fabricating a photomask there is first provided a transparent substrate having formed thereover a blanket first masking layer, in turn having formed thereover a blanket second masking layer, in turn having formed thereover a patterned photoresist layer having an active patterned region and a border region adjoining the active patterned region. There is then etched, while employing a first etch method and while employing the patterned photoresist layer as a first etch mask layer, the blanket second masking layer and the blanket first masking layer to form a patterned second masking layer and a patterned first masking layer. There is then irradiated, while employing a cutout mask, at least a portion of the active patterned region of the patterned photoresist layer such that at least the portion of the active patterned region of the patterned photoresist layer is removed from over the transparent substrate while at least a portion of the border region of the patterned photoresist layer is not removed from over the substrate, to thus form a further patterned photoresist layer. There is then etched, while employing a second etch method, a portion of the patterned second masking layer newly exposed to form a further patterned second masking layer. Finally, there is then stripped from over the transparent substrate the further patterned photoresist layer. The method is particularly useful for forming an attenuated phase shift mask (APSM) photomask.