Munehiro Ogasawara

Advanced electron-beam writing system EX-11 for next-generation mask fabrication

Toshiba and Toshiba Machine have developed an advanced electron beam writing system EX-11 for next-generation mask fabrication. EX-11 is a 50 kV variable-shaped beam lithography system for manufacturing 4x masks for 0.15 - 0.18 micrometer technology generation. Many breakthroughs were studied and applied to EX-11 to meet future mask-fabrication requirements, such as critical dimension and positioning accuracy. We have verified the accuracy required for 0.15 - 0.18 micrometer generation.

Correction technique of EBM-6000 prepared for EUV mask writing

Image placement (IP) errors caused by electro-static chuck (ESC) and non-flatness of mask are additional factors in writing extreme ultra-violet (EUV) mask, and minimizing their influences is being fervently addressed. New correction technique of EBM-6000 has been developed for EUV mask writing based on the conventional grid matching correction (GMC) without ESC to obtain good reproducibility to satisfy users requirement to develop EUV mask at an early stage.

Reduction of fogging effect caused by scattered electrons in an electron beam system

Background exposure of a resist caused by scattered electrons (the fogging effect) degrades critical dimension accuracy when the pattern density changes over the specimen. We measured the fogging effect in an electron beam optical column. In order to reduce the fogging effect, a scattered electron absorber plate having a converging holes structure was attached to the lower surface of the objective lens. When the most severe pattern for the fogging effect was applied, we achieved the size variation caused by the fogging effect less than 8 nm. The converging holes effectively trap the scattered electrons and greatly reduce the fogging effect.

New electron optics for mask writer EBM-7000 to challenge hp 32nm generation

Semiconductor scaling is expected to continue to hp32nm and beyond, accompanied by explosive data volume expansion. Required minimum feature size at hp 32nm will be less than 50nm on the mask, according to ITRS2007(1). EBM 7000 is a newly designed mask writer for the hp32 nm node with an improved electron optical column providing the beam resolution (10 nm measured in situ) and beam current density (200 A/cm2) necessary for cost effective mask production at hp32nm node. In this paper we report on column improvements, the in situ beam blur measurement method and writing results from EBM 7000. Written patterns show dose margin (CD change [nm] / 1 % dose change) of .94 nm /1 % dose for line/space arrays using chemically amplified resist PRL009 and our standard processing. Using a simple model to relate the measured beam intensity distribution to the measured dose margin, we infer an effective total blur of 30 nm, dominated by a contribution of 28 nm from the resist exposure and development process. Further evidence of the dominance of the process contribution is the measured improvement in dose margin to .64 nm/% dose obtained by modifying our standard process. Even larger process improvements will be needed for successful fabrication of hp22nm masks.

Desired IP control methodology for EUV mask in current mask process

Extreme ultra-violet (EUV) lithography is one of the leading potential solutions for next generation lithography. Image placement (IP) errors specific to EUV mask induced by non-telecentricity have to be minimized to satisfy the strict IP requirement. IP accuracy of EUV mask is considerably influenced by electro-static chuck (ESC) characteristics and backside non-flatness of each blank when it is held by ESC in EB mask writer, IP metrology tool, and exposure tool as suggested in SEMI standard. We propose to apply the correction technique to each EUV mask in EB mask writing with flatness data of blank and ESC to minimize IP errors caused by mask non-flatness and ESC characteristics. In addition, IP control methodology for EUV mask with conventional IP metrology tool is proposed for pattern writing by EB mask writer with this correction technique. Early development of EUV mask patterning is enabled by this IP control methodology without substantial changes to the current mask process.

Study of heating effect on CAR in electron beam mask writing

Heating effect was evaluated for EBM-6000 which is operated at high current density of 70A/cm2 and acceleration voltage of 50kV. FEP171 as widely used for current productions and lower sensitivity resists are tested. Lower sensitivity resist is one of key items to achieve highly accurate Local critical dimension uniformity (LCDU) because of shot noise reduction. CD variations in experiment are compared with simulated temperature changes induced by heating effect. Then, the ratio, ΔCD/ΔT, is found mostly constant for every resist, 0.1 nm/C°. Writing conditions are estimated to meet CDU spec of hp45 generation for a worst case pattern, i.e. 100% density pattern. For FEP171, the maximum shot size of 0.85 μm shot size at 2pass writing mode is sufficient. It should be reduced to 0.5 μm at 2pass writing mode for every lower sensitivity resist. When 4pass writing mode is used, the maximum shot size of 0.85 μm is available. Writing conditions and writing time for realistic patterns are also discussed.

Beam-monitoring system using microapertures for electron-beam lithography

A new beam-monitoring system for electron-beam lithography is proposed, which can be used for the variably shaped beam (VSB) method, the character projection (CP) method and the electron- beam mask (EB mask) projection method. The system is composed of micro-apertures and a detector placed below the micro- aperture, which is installed at a focal plane of a mask writer. The micro-apertures are formed on a 1-micrometer-thick Si film on which two 200-nm-thick W layers are deposited. A shaped beam is scanning over the micro-aperture, and the electrons that pass through the micro-aperture are directly detected with the detector, so that the two-dimensional shape and size of the beam are measured. The contrast and the signal-to-noise ratio obtained by this system are greatly superior to those obtained by the conventional mark-scanning method.

Silicon oxide deposition using a gallium-focused ion beam

Experiments concerning silicon oxide deposition using a focused ion beam were carried out in order to apply silicon oxide as insulator in integrated circuit modification. Silicon oxide film was formed using a 25-keV gallium focused ion beam with a mixed gas of 1.3.5.7- tetramethylcyclotetrasiloxane and oxygen. The deposited film consisted of mainly silicon and oxygen, which was analyzed by micro-Auger electron spectroscopy. It also contained 5 percent gallium, but carbon content was below noise level. The ratio of silicon to oxygen was 1 to 2. It was found that carbon content depended on oxygen used as deposition source gas. The resistivities of the eight deposited silicon oxide films were measured. The resistivities wer 28-79 M(Omega) cm at 5 volts and these values did not change significantly even after the samples were left in a room for three months. It was determined that it will be possible to use deposited silicon oxide for integrated circuit modification.

Improvement of beam-adjustment accuracy by beam-intensity distribution measurement on a second shaping aperture in electron-beam writing systems

We proposed a new adjustment method for the beam-intensity distribution. On the 2nd shaping aperture plate, a small aperture is positioned sufficiently apart from the aperture for variable shaping. The center of the 1st shaping aperture image is moved to the small aperture by adjusting an alignment coil. The beam current, which passes through the small aperture, is measured by the Faraday cup on the target while the 1st shaping aperture image is scanned over the small aperture by operating the shaping deflector. Using this method the beam-intensity distribution of the 1st shaping aperture image on the 2nd shaping aperture plane is obtained. The beam-intensity distribution obtained is ideally a series of concentric circles and the maximum value is reached at the center circle. The center is shifted when the alignment of the limit aperture at the illumination or at the 1st shaping aperture is incorrect. The position of the maximum in the beam intensity is adjusted to the center of the 1st shaping aperture image. At the beam-current-density of 20 A/cm2, the slope of the distribution is usually under 1 percent. To evaluate the adjustment accuracy, resist profile of drawn pattern is measured by AFM. The resist profiles in a beam shot coincide well with the beam intensity distribution.

Eddy current evaluation for a high-resolution EB system

A semi-in-lens electron beam (EB) optical system improves the beam resolution. However, the eddy current is induced in the target and deviates the beam position when the stage is moving continuously. We calculated the eddy current distribution by approximating the magnetic field on the target to a Gaussian distribution. In the mask-scan EB column1 the maximum value and the dispersion of the magnetic field on the target are 0.01 T and 30 mm, respectively. The beam shift due to the eddy current flowing in the Cr film on a reticle is 1.5 X 10-11 m at the stage speed of 0.1 m/s. Therefore, the eddy current does not degrade the positional accuracy.