51 results about "Extreme ultraviolet lithography" patented technology

This invention discloses a method for enhancing and controlling the radiation of an LPP-EUV light source based on dual-pulse spatiotemporal co-constraint, belonging to the field of semiconductor manufacturing technology. This invention obtains a spatiotemporal reference by real-time monitoring of a liquid metal droplet, uses a pre-pulse laser to induce target material deformation into a fogged target cloud, and combines high-speed imaging and a hydrodynamic model to predict the time and coordinates of the target cloud's energy absorption peak. It dynamically adjusts the delay time and optical axis direction of the main pulse laser to achieve dual-pulse spatiotemporal co-constraint, and constructs a closed-loop control system through a recursive least squares algorithm with a dynamic forgetting factor. This invention effectively improves the extreme ultraviolet light conversion efficiency, controls the power fluctuation of the light source within ±0.5%, and extends the maintenance cycle of optical components by 2 times. It can be widely applied to next-generation high-power extreme ultraviolet lithography light source systems, meeting the application requirements of semiconductor miniaturization processes.

The application discloses a hydrogen curtain gas supply shunting device for a light source bin of an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, and the hydrogen curtain gas supply shunting nozzle is divided into two paths by a partition plate, one path of the gas flow channel is outward, and the other path of the gas flow channel is forward; the outward gas flow channel generates a component parallel to a mirror surface of a collecting mirror and the component direction flows away from a symmetry axis and points to an outer edge of the collecting mirror; the forward gas flow channel is parallel to a symmetry axis surface of the collecting mirror and the direction is forward; the hydrogen gas flow of the outward gas flow channel removes tin drop residues adsorbed on the mirror surface of the collecting mirror near an inner edge; the forward gas flow channel balances a circulation generated by the aforementioned outward channel and prevents the generation of a backflow area, thereby avoiding the secondary pollution caused by tin drop debris carried in the backflow area and returned to the collecting mirror; and the application ensures the formation of a stable hydrogen curtain without backflow near a main focal point of the collecting mirror and avoids the risk of secondary pollution.

A method and apparatus for performing post-exposure bake operations is described herein. After exposure of photoresist on a substrate, the substrate is heated during a baking process to facilitate protection of the resist. The baking process is performed in a vacuum environment at sub-atmospheric pressures. After baking at reduced pressure, the substrate is cooled. The cooling process is performed at sub-atmospheric pressures. Further development of the resist is performed at ambient pressures.

A method of microfabrication includes forming a sacrificial layer over a film. A resist layer is formed over the sacrificial layer. The resist layer includes an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) resist. A pattern is formed in the resist layer by an EUV exposure and a wet etch followed by rinsing and drying, resulting in uncovered portions of the sacrificial layer. The uncovered portions of the sacrificial layer are treated. The pattern is transferred from the resist layer to the film by performing an etch process.

The application discloses a kind of pneumatic seal nozzle for extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, which is based on a kind of hydrogen curtain gas supply system for extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, the system is arranged in the outer edge, inner edge and center ring of extreme ultraviolet light collection mirror, three groups of independent controllable hydrogen nozzle;Its characteristics are: the pneumatic seal nozzle in the form of Laval nozzle with throat arranged in the center of extreme ultraviolet light collection mirror, the high-speed flow generated by it is used to form the cross-seam pneumatic seal in the form of backflow zone at the gap between laser chamber and collection mirror assembly, the scale of backflow zone is in the same geometric order with the cross-seam width, so that the leakage of laser chamber gas supply at the gap is weakened by one order of magnitude;The application integrates the pneumatic seal nozzle in the form of Laval nozzle with throat at the gap between laser chamber and collection mirror assembly, reduces the hydrogen leakage flow to about 5% without device, greatly reduces gas loss, and reduces the working pressure of gas pressure maintenance pump set.

A pellicle for a reflective photo mask includes a frame, a core layer having a front surface and a rear surface, and disposed over the frame, a first capping layer disposed on the front surface of the core layer, an anti-reflection layer disposed on the first capping layer, a barrier layer disposed on the anti-reflection layer, and a heat emissive layer disposed on the barrier layer.

The application discloses a hydrogen curtain supply nozzle for an outer edge of a collecting mirror of an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, which is composed of an outer edge annular high-pressure section and an outer edge annular low-pressure section, a plurality of outer edge flow guide micro-holes with a millimeter level diameter are uniformly distributed on the side where the outer edge annular high-pressure section and the outer edge annular low-pressure section are connected, hydrogen enters the outer edge annular low-pressure section from the outer edge annular high-pressure section through the millimeter level outer edge flow guide micro-holes, the outer edge annular high-pressure section has the characteristics of high pressure and low flow rate due to the flow limiting of the outer edge flow guide micro-holes, and there is almost no total pressure loss in the circumferential direction, and all the jets entering the outer edge annular low-pressure section through the outer edge flow guide micro-holes have uniform total pressure. In the high-pressure section, the gas is transported at a low flow rate, the total pressure loss of the circumferential flow is greatly reduced, finally, a constant and controllable background pressure is provided for the light source cabin, a physical foundation is laid for the stable operation of the lithography machine, and the reliability of the equipment performance is improved.

The present application relates to the field of extreme ultraviolet lithography protective film preparation, in particular to a preparation method of a single-walled carbon nanotube film with high strength and high extreme ultraviolet transmittance. In the process of growing single-walled carbon nanotubes by floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition, selenium is used as a growth promoter, and the weak etching effect of hydrogen flow is regulated to reduce amorphous carbon deposition and prolong catalyst life, so as to realize the controlled preparation and in-situ dry collection of single-walled carbon nanotubes with high purity, high crystallinity and large aspect ratio. The diameter distribution of the single-walled carbon nanotubes is 1.6-3 nm, the aspect ratio is >30000, the Raman spectrum G / D ratio is >150, and the purity of the prepared single-walled carbon nanotubes is >98wt.%. The prepared single-walled carbon nanotube film not only has excellent mechanical properties but also has adjustable EUV transmittance, and at the same time meets the particle interception and EUV high transmittance requirements of the EUV lithography protective film, and is an ideal protective film for EUV lithography mask.

The application provides an EUV photoresist topography and roughness control method and device based on automatic parameter optimization, related products, and relates to extreme ultraviolet lithography technology and semiconductor manufacturing field. The method comprises constructing a random exposure model, simulating secondary electron random walk and scattering effect, and establishing a near neighbor condensation crosslinking mechanism based on lattice topological constraints; a discrete random development model is constructed based on the Gillese ratio algorithm, and the competitive reaction between the developing solution and the metal oxide core is simulated; the quantum yield, the electron blur length, and the number of development critical sites are used as optimization variables, a fitness function is constructed based on the three-dimensional topographic feature parameters of the photoresist, and the target parameter combination is calculated and output by an optimization algorithm. The application can realize fine control of photoresist topography and effective suppression of roughness, and improve the process window and manufacturing yield of extreme ultraviolet lithography.

To provide an improved method for operating an aerial image measurement system and / or an aerial image measurement system. [Solution] A method for operating an airborne image measuring system (100) for qualification and / or measurement of an EUV mask (102), the airborne image measuring system comprising a vacuum chamber (104) having a measurement process chamber (106) and a process preparation chamber (108), an EUV plasma source (110), and a vacuum lock (112) for transferring the EUV mask into the process preparation chamber, the method comprising: performing preparatory measures in parallel in and / or in or within the vacuum chamber to prepare for qualification and / or measurement of the EUV mask; and qualifying and / or measuring the EUV mask by the airborne image measuring system by capturing an airborne image of the EUV mask.

A pellicle for protecting a photomask from contaminant particles during photolithography is provided. The pellicle includes a pellicle membrane having a network of boron carbonitride (BCN) nanostructures. The pellicle membrane is attached to a pellicle frame that is mounted to a photomask to be used during photolithography operations.

This invention relates to a dual-coordinated cyclic hexanuclear tin oxide cluster compound, a photoresist composition, and its application in photolithography, belonging to the fields of photolithography materials and semiconductor manufacturing technology. The composition uses a cyclic hexanuclear tin oxide cluster as the active component, is compatible with common solvents and coating processes, and exhibits excellent thermal stability (significant mass loss only occurs above 260°C), meeting the requirements of coating, pre-baking, and exposure processes. This material demonstrates good film-forming properties, enabling the formation of uniform, low-defect thin films on silicon wafers, suitable for deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography, electron beam (EB) lithography, and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. In these platforms, the photoresist composition can achieve high resolution, low line edge roughness (LER), and high-fidelity pattern transfer, exhibiting high etching resistance, meeting the performance and process requirements of advanced microelectronics manufacturing.

A method and device for generating extreme ultraviolet lithography light source, where the method comprises generating micron-thick, uniform, and stable metallic liquid film target material in vacuum environment, and using focused 2-micron wavelength laser beam to irradiate target material to produce extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light; the device comprises 2-micron solid-state laser module, liquid film generation and maintenance module, laser focusing and energy coupling module, and EUV light collection and transmission module. Two-micron solid-state laser module is used to irradiate metallic liquid film target to generate EUV light. Liquid film generation and maintenance module ensures uniform and stable micron-thick metallic liquid film through precise temperature and flow control. Laser focusing and energy coupling module adjusts spatiotemporal distribution of laser pulses to facilitate efficient absorption of driving energy by liquid film target. EUV light collection and transmission module collects generated EUV light and transmits it to subsequent lithography process.

The application discloses a hydrogen curtain gas supply system for a collecting mirror of an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, characterized in that three groups of independently controllable hydrogen nozzles are arranged on the outer edge, the inner edge and the center ring of the extreme ultraviolet light collecting mirror; the three groups of independently controllable hydrogen nozzles and the hydrogen gas supply flow from the laser chamber work together to form a three-dimensional hydrogen curtain with a laminar flow dominated by no backflow, circumferential uniformity and stability on the surface of the collecting mirror; the hydrogen curtain gas supply nozzles on the outer edge form a "gas scraper" close to the mirror surface; the inner edge shunt nozzles actively inhibit the formation of a backflow area near the main focal point, thereby avoiding that the tin particles carried away are rolled back to the mirror surface, and fundamentally eliminating secondary pollution; the cross-seam pneumatic sealing nozzles reduce the hydrogen leakage to about 5% of the conventional design; the application systematically solves the tin pollution protection and gas leakage control problems of the collecting mirror of the extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, and realizes efficient, energy-saving and reliable long-time stable operation.

This invention relates to the field of optoelectronics, specifically to a metal-based extreme ultraviolet photoresist composition and photoresist, and a method for forming patterns using photolithography. The composition contains a metal oxide cluster compound with the structural formula shown in formula (I), wherein R1 is selected from C6-C6. 20 aryl or C2-C 20 Alkyl group, R2 is selected from C 2‑ C 10 Alkyl or C2-C 10 The haloalkyl group. The metal-based extreme ultraviolet lithography composition of the present invention has low exposure dose, excellent resolution and low linear edge roughness (LER) during photolithography.

An extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography system includes a scanner. Photolithography system performs EUV photolithography processes with a reticle in the scanner. The scanner includes a reticle storage chamber, a reticle backside inspection chamber, and a reticle cleaning chamber. The reticle cleaning chamber cleans debris from the backside of the reticle within the scanner.

Disclosed is a blankmask for EUV lithography, including a reflective film, a capping film, an etch stop film, a phase shift film, and a hard mask film which are sequentially formed on a substrate. The phase shift film contains ruthenium (Ru), and the etch stop film contains chrome (Cr) and niobium (Nb). In the etch stop film, the content of niobium (Nb) ranges from 20 to 50 at %, and the content of chrome (Cr) ranges from 10 to 40 at %. The hard mask film contains tantalum (Ta) and oxygen (O). The content of tantalum (Ta) in the hard mask film is higher than or equal to 50 at %. With the blankmask, it is possible to implement a high resolution and NILS during wafer printing, and implement DtC.

A resist composition for use in the manufacture of integrated circuits, uses of the resist composition and a lithography method using the resist composition, wherein the resist composition comprises an alkyltin oxocage having a counterion selected from tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate, tetrakis[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]borate, tetrakis[3,5-bis(tert-butyl)phenyl]borate and tetrakis[(3,5-bis(1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-methoxypropan-2-yl)phenyl)phenyl]borate. A lithography method comprising the steps of: a) providing a resist composition comprising an alkyltin oxocage having a counterion selected from the above borate group; b) exposing the resist composition to a patterned radiation beam or electron beam to form a pattern in the resist composition; and c) developing the resist to form a circuit pattern.

The present invention is a hypervalent iodine compound having a structure represented by the following general formula (1), where R1 and R2 each independently represent a halogen atom or a hydrocarbyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms and optionally containing a heteroatom, the R1 and the R2 optionally being bonded to each other to form a ring together with the carbon atoms bonded thereto and the atoms between the carbon atoms. This can provide: a non-chemically amplified resist composition excellent in sensitivity and resolution in lithography using a high-energy beam, especially electron beam (EB) lithography and EUV lithography; a laminate obtained from the resist composition; and a patterning process using the resist composition.

The application discloses a high-performance composite protective film for an extreme ultraviolet lithography mask and a preparation method thereof. The protective film comprises a base layer and a functional layer, wherein the base layer is a self-supporting film formed by coaxial BCN nanotubes interlaced, has a layered structure with C layers and B-N layers alternately superimposed, and realizes strong chemical bonding through B-C and C-N bonds; the functional layer is a noble metal nanoparticle modified on the surface of the base layer through an atomic layer deposition technology. The preparation method comprises the following steps: growing an enhanced BCN base layer on a temporary substrate through an optimized alternating pulse CVD / ALD process, then constructing a metal nanoparticle functional layer through a precise atomic layer deposition technology, and finally obtaining a final product through stripping and multi-stage annealing treatment. Through the innovative material system and controllable preparation process, the application successfully solves the industry problem that high light transmittance, high strength, high chemical inertness and antistatic performance are difficult to be compatible, and the prepared protective film has significant advantages in terms of EUV light transmittance, mechanical strength, environmental durability and antistatic efficiency, and is especially suitable for long-term reliable protection of a mask in high-end extreme ultraviolet lithography technology.

The present invention relates to a photoresist mask for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. The photoresist mask of the present invention comprises a main area where a main pattern is formed, a first dummy area surrounding the main area where a first dummy pattern is formed, and a plurality of second dummy areas disposed in corner areas and spaced apart from the first dummy area, where a second dummy pattern with a width greater than that of the first dummy pattern is formed, wherein the second dummy area is an area where a lithography process is performed at least three times.

This invention discloses a fabrication system and method for large-area phase-type computational holograms. The method involves designing and constructing a fabrication system for large-area phase-type computational holograms. By utilizing a micromirror array and microlens array in the photoresist excitation optical path, tens of thousands of laser beams are generated for parallel writing, achieving an equivalent writing speed of 100 mm / s. The minimum lateral feature size of each beam reaches 50 nm, enabling the fabrication of large-area phase-type computational holograms. The designed large-area phase-type computational hologram employs a photonic sieve-like structure, which significantly improves the accuracy of surface shape detection compared to traditional zone plate-type computational holograms, enabling high-precision aspherical surface shape detection for extreme ultraviolet lithography objectives.

An EUV mirror system comprising a mirror body (37) and a support component (34), wherein the mirror body (37) has an optical surface (35) with high reflectivity for EUV radiation. A gap (43) filled with a liquid (41) is formed between the mirror body (37) and the support component (34), so that the mirror body (37) is suspended above the liquid (41) relative to the support component (349). The invention also relates to a projection lens and a microlithographic projection exposure system.

The application provides a fluorine-containing aromatic acid ligand modified zirconium metal oxide nanocluster photoresist material and a preparation method and application thereof. The preparation method of the fluorine-containing aromatic acid ligand modified zirconium metal oxide nanocluster photoresist material comprises the following steps: mixing a Zr6O4(OH)4(MAA) 12 solution and a fluorine-containing aromatic acid ligand compound solution, reacting, rotary evaporation and drying to obtain the fluorine-containing aromatic acid ligand modified zirconium metal oxide nanocluster photoresist material. The preparation method is simple, raw materials are cheap and easy to obtain, and the cost is low, and the method is suitable for industrial production. The fluorine-containing aromatic acid ligand modified zirconium metal oxide nanocluster photoresist material can be applied to ultraviolet lithography, electron beam lithography and extreme ultraviolet lithography, and the formed lithography pattern has the advantages of low line edge roughness and high resolution, and has a wide application prospect.

A vacuum pump system 10 comprises a plurality of serially connected pump stages 12 arranged in parallel. An inlet 14 of each pump stage is connectable to a recipient. An outlet 26 of each pump stage is connected via a manifold 28 to an inlet 32 of an exhaust pump 30. The exhaust pump may be a dry pump, particularly a multistage roots pump, or a condenser pump, particularly a liquid ring pump. The pump stages and the exhaust pump may be arranged inside a housing. A pump control system and the exhaust pump may be inside a facility space of the housing. A controller 40 may control the fluid flow through and / or past the exhaust pump. A bypass 36 may be connected to the manifold to selectively bypass the exhaust pump and controlled by the controller. The controller may control a speed of the exhaust pump. Each pump stage may be a multistage pump stage comprising a plurality of pumps arranged in series, and may comprise a primary booster pump 20, particularly a mechanical booster pump, a secondary booster pump 22 and a backing pump 24, particularly a multistage dry pump. The vacuum pump system may be connected to a chamber of an extreme ultraviolet lithography vacuum system or a direct-air capture system. [Include figure 1]

A metal-containing photoresist such as an organo-metal-oxide EUV photoresist is exposed to a reactive chemical treatment. The reactive chemical treatment may expose the metal-containing photoresist to one or more halogen-containing gases, where the one or more halogen-containing gases may selectively remove R-groups bonded to metal atoms in the photoresist. The reactive chemical treatment reduces dose-to-size for effective photoresist exposure, increases a density of the photoresist, increases etch contrast between exposed and unexposed regions of the photoresist, and reduces defectivity. The reactive chemical treatment may be performed without an oxygen-containing species or hydrogen-containing species, and reduces a temperature of a post-exposure bake that is performed in the photolithography process. In some implementations, the reactive chemical treatment is performed post-application, post-exposure, or post-development in a photolithography process.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a multilayer photoresist stack over a substrate, in which the multilayer photoresist stack has a first photoresist layer and a second photoresist layer over the first photoresist layer, and the second photoresist layer is less reactive to hydrogen than the first photoresist layer, exposing the multilayer photoresist stack to an EUV radiation, and developing the exposed multilayer photoresist stack.

The present invention provides a substrate with multilayer reflective film for obtaining a reflective mask that can achieve a higher intensity (quantity) of exposure light on a body to be transferred in an EUV lithography process for producing a semiconductor device.　A substrate with a multilayer reflective film according to the present invention comprises a substrate and a multilayer reflective film, said substrate being characterized in that on a surface of the substrate with a multilayer reflective film, the inclination dR of a reflectance spectrum R(λ) indicating the relationship between the wavelength λ of incident light and the reflectance R is represented by dR = (R2 - R1) / (λ2 - λ1), and the inclination dR is -41.5 % / nm to 14.5 % / nm. (In the formula of the inclination dR, the wavelength λ1 is 13.525 nm, the wavelength λ2 is 13.550 nm, R1 is a reflectance R(λ1) at the wavelength λ1 on the surface of the substrate with a multilayer reflective film, and R2 is a reflectance R(λ2) at the wavelength λ2 on the surface of the substrate with a multilayer reflective film.)

This invention provides a transmission-type EUV lithography system that has high transmittance and, as a result, very high light efficiency. [Solution] The present invention relates to a transmission-type EUV lithography apparatus, wherein the lithography apparatus is configured to include an EUV light source, a first membrane-type diffractive optical element that transmits EUV light output from the EUV light source to provide illumination light, a transmission-type EUV mask that generates pattern light to be patterned on a wafer with EUV light transmitted through the first membrane-type diffractive optical element, and a second membrane-type diffractive optical element for exposing the wafer with the pattern light generated by the transmission-type EUV mask. The EUV light source is composed of a 13.5 nm wavelength EUV light source generated by a plasma reaction via a lithium or lithium alloy target. The first membrane-type diffractive optical element and the second membrane-type diffractive optical element are zone plate lenses.

The invention relates to films of nanotubes (NT-films) with variable regions of alignment of the nanotubes on free-standing portions of the films. Therewith, the invention provides free-standing NT-films with a targeted pattern of different regions of alignment and / or random distribution. The invention further relates to methods for preparing such NT-films with free-standing portions comprising variable and targeted regions of alignment and the use thereof in optical applications like their use as pellicles in EUV lithography.