Reticle cover for preventing esd damage

Abstract

A reticle and pellicle that are modified to prevent ESD damage to the masking material between portions of the lithographic mask pattern on the reticle during an integrated circuit fabrication process. The modification involves providing conducting lines on the glass side of the reticle and on the surface of the pellicle to balance any buildup of electrostatic charges on those devices, thereby reducing or eliminating the induction of opposite charges onto adjacent mask pattern features on the reticle and preventing the melting and bridging of those mask pattern features and the defects caused by such melting or bridging. The conductive metal lines may have a smaller width than the smallest resolution value of the reduction lens used in the mask pattern transfer process, and may also be located outside of the focal plane of the reduction lens to avoid transfer of the images of the conductive lines onto the target semiconductor substrate during the mask pattern transfer process.