John G. Hartley

EL‐4, a new generation electron‐beam lithography system

The new generation electron‐beam lithography system EL‐4 is described, designed for direct wafer exposure as well as optical reticle and x‐ray mask making. The new architecture features control through workstations and local area network communication between these and the microprocessor‐controlled subsystems. The system has on‐line error checking and diagnostics. Wafers up to 200 mm diam are handled individually with a Standard Mechanical InterFace‐compatible, fully robotic system, and are electrostatically chucked to the stage. Reticles are clamped to the stage with double‐sided e/s chucks, ring‐bonded membrane masks are kinematically held in a carrier chucked to the stage. The reticle/mask maker has an internal temperature control system in addition to the clean‐room climate control for the entire mechanical hardware. The electron optics accommodate triangle as well as rectangle spot formation, and for direct write application a throughput‐enhancing third level in the deflection hierarchy. High resolut...

EL5: One tool for advanced x-ray and chrome on glass mask making

The state-of-the-art for mask making continues to be driven by 1× x-ray masks. The IBM EL4+ e-beam mask writer at the Advanced Mask Facility in Burlington, Vermont, was originally designed for 0.35 μm ground rules (GRs) direct write at 50 kV, but delivered at 75 kV operation to achieve 0.25 μm GR performance for 1× mask making. Over the next 2 years, with optimization and improvements in each of the subsystems, its performance was enhanced beyond the 0.18 μm GR requirements. It is clear, however, that for 0.13 and 0.1 μm GR mask manufacturing, a new tool is required. It has also become apparent that because of the very high development and tool build costs, and small number of required x-ray mask makers, the same technology must be applicable for chrome on glass (COG) mask making. Based on the experience with EL4+, IBM is designing an EL5 tool which will provide the 0.13/0.1 μm GR performance for 1×, and easily convert to 4× COG exposure for 9 in. glass as well as 300 mm wafer direct write operation. As w...

Performance of IBM's EL-4 e-beam lithography system

IBMs latest electron beam mask maker, EL-4, is online at IBMs Advanced Mask Facility (AMF) in Essex Junction, Vermont. The EL-4 system is a 75KV shaped beam lithography system utilizing a Variable Axis Immersion Lens (VAIL) designed to produce 1X or NX masks for 0.25 micrometers lithography ground rules, extendable to 0.13 micrometers . It is currently producing NIST-style X-ray membrane masks with pattern sizes over 30 X 30 mm2. This paper will give a brief description of the EL-4 tool and its operating features, specific measures used to enhance tool stability and accuracy, and measurement data from masks recently produced on the tool.

Performance enhancements on IBM’s EL‐4 electron‐beam lithography system

IBM’s latest electron‐beam mask maker, EL‐4, is installed at IBM’s Advanced Mask Facility in Essex Junction, Vermont. The EL‐4 system is a 75 kV variable‐shaped‐beam lithography system designed to produce 1X or NX masks for 0.25 μm lithography ground rules, extendable to 0.13 μm. It is currently producing NIST‐style x‐ray membrane masks with pattern sizes up to 50×50 mm2. After a brief description of the EL‐4 tool and its operating features, the article describes the recently implemented new writing subsystem, provides an overview of the tool software structure, and presents measurement data from masks recently produced on the tool.

SOI (Service Oriented Integration) and SIMM (Service Integration Maturity Model An Analysis

The constellation of SOA entities encompasses a triplet of Service consumer/provider and an optional registry. In the normal style, the service provider (“Service”) is instantiated and the details are stored in a registry. Service consumers seeking the required service explore the registry, locate the Service end points, receive the service contracts (normally as WSDLs), comply with the established contracts in order to consume the service. While this is an ideal scenario, in integration based environments the style differs where integration enablers as services are required to be built to aid integration. Thus Service Oriented integration (SOI) would mean the following depending on the type of players in the IT industry:• To an ISV (Independent Software Vendor) who develops products, SOI would mean exposing loosely coupled interfaces to be consumed easily by abstracting the implementation;• To a systems integrator, this would mean creating and hosting integration enablers as services( most of the times in the middleware layer) to be consumed by applications which in turn might fulfill the intended functionality by interacting with one or more back end applications. SIMM (Service Integration Maturity Model) defines a maturity model of such SOI based environments. This maturity model in turn will serve as an index to measure the level of flexibility and agility of an industry’s IT Environment to the changing needs of the business which is the key goal of SOA. Though there are many factors affecting SIMM, standards and modularity play a key role. In this paper we intend to analyze SIMM characteristics, benefits of standards combined with modularity, different enterprise environments and suggest the relevance of standards in each environment. In section I, we briefly discuss the functionality of integration enablers and various patterns. In Section II, we discuss the SIMM characteristics combined with modularity, explore in detail the various types of enterprises and requirements to comply with standards to achieve greater SIMM and finally conclude.

Performance of the EL‐3+ maskmaker

IBM’s new e‐beam maskmaker, designated EL‐3+, is installed and operating in the IBM Advanced Mask Facility in Burlington, Vermont. This tool represents a significant extension in the state of the art in the manufacture of masks, particularly in the areas of minimum feature size and overlay. The tool routinely operates with 0.35 μm ground rules at 70 nm (3σ) registration to grid. The tool has demonstrated the ability to work at 0.25 μm ground rules as well. The primary mission of the tool is the production of 1X x‐ray masks. Some of the tool parameters include a 50 keV electron beam operating at a current density of 20 A/cm2. The system uses a shaped spot with a maximum size of 2×2 μm2. Exposures are made over areas with dimensions of up to 80 by 80 mm with a 2.1 mm field size. Deflection within a field is done through a combination of magnetic and electric deflection in a variable axis immersion lens (VAIL) configuration. During exposure the pattern data is stored on‐line in a 1 G‐byte buffer. The pattern buffers are loaded directly from a host IBM 4381. The system automatically corrects for any field distortions to a level of 6.25 nm using a calibrated reference grid.

Blue herd: automated captioning for videoconferences

Blue Herd is a project in IBM Research to investigate automated captioning for videoconferences. Today videoconferences are held among meeting participants connected with a variety of devices: personal computers, mobile devices, and multi-participant meeting rooms. Blue Herd is charged with studying automated real-time captioning in that context. This poster explains the system that was developed for personal computers and describes our experiments to include mobile devices and multi-participant meeting rooms.

CA resist with high sensitivity and sub-100-nm resolution for advanced mask making

Recently, there is significant interest in using CA resist for electron beam (E-beam) applications including mask making, direct write, and projection printing. CA resists provide superior lithographic performance in comparison to traditional non-CA E-beam resist in particular high contrast, resolution, and sensitivity. However, most of the commercially available CA resist have the concern of airborne base contaminants and sensitivity to PAB and/or PEB temperatures. In this presentation, we will discuss a new improved ketal resists system referred to as KRS-XE which exhibits excellent lithography, is robust toward airborne base, compatible with 0.263N TMAH aqueous developer and exhibits excellent lithography, is robust toward airborne base, compatible with 0.263N TMAH aqueous developer and exhibits a large PAB/PEB latitude. With the combination of a high performance mask making E-beam exposure tool, high kV shaped beam system EL4+ and the KRS-XE resist, we have printed 75nm lines/space feature with excellent profile control at a dose of 13(mu) C/cm2 at 75kV. The shaped beam vector scan system used here provides a unique property in resolving small features in lithography and throughput. Overhead in EL4+

Multiple‐pass writing optimization for proximity x‐ray mask‐making using electron‐beam lithography

limits the systems ability to fully exploit the sensitivity of the new resist for throughput. The EL5 system has sufficiently low overhead that it is projected to print a 4X, 16G DRAM mask with OPC in under 3 hours with the CA resist. We will discuss the throughput advantages of the next generation EL5 system over the existing EL4+.

Electron beam lithography tool for manufacture of X-ray masks

We have evaluated and implemented a multiple‐pass writing scheme that significantly improves the image‐placement performance of masks for proximity x‐ray lithography. Masks were fabricated using a 75 kV EL‐3+ electron‐beam lithography system that separates the data into fields and subfields, and exposes the images by using a variable‐shaped beam. Multiple‐pass writing allows averaging of system noise between multiple exposure passes written at fractional doses [Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 32, L1707 (1993)]; stitching errors can also be averaged by offsetting the locations of the tool field and subfield boundaries for each pass [Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 32, 5933 (1993)]. Multiple‐pass writing was evaluated both with and without boundary offsets. Our experiments indicated that the offset method resulted in better image placement but negatively affected image size and defect performance because of the EL‐3+system limitations. The no‐offset method was optimized and implemented and achieved sub‐50 nm (3σ) image placement. The method was then transferred to the EL‐4 electron‐beam lithography system, resulting in image placement of sub‐30 nm (3σ).