It is very important to mitigate oxidation of multilayer mirrors (MLMs) and carbon deposition onto MLMs to extend the
lifetime of EUV exposure tool. In order to estimate the lifetime, we have to figure out scaling law. Previous results at
EUVA have shown that carbon deposition rate on MLMs is not proportional to every hydrocarbon partial pressure and
every EUV intensity3-4. In this study we focused on carbon deposition on Si-capped multilayer mirror. We made
experiments of EUV irradiation to the MLMs using two different apparatuses. One is connected to a beamline (SBL-2)
of synchrotron radiation facility Super-ALIS in the NTT Atsugi research and development center, and the other is
connected to a beamline (BL9) of synchrotron radiation facility New SUBARU in the University of Hyogo. As the result
of experiments, we found that different carbon deposition rate occurred on the different beamlines, although they have
the same average EUV intensity. We present differences of carbon deposition rate on MLMs between two different
beamlines and estimation of carbon deposition rate on EUV tool analyzing dependences of carbon deposition rate on
characteristics of EUV source.
It is very important to mitigate oxidation of multilayer mirrors (MLMs) and carbon deposition onto MLMs to extend the
lifetime of EUV exposure tool. We focused on carbon deposition on Si-capped multilayer mirror. We made experiments
of EUV irradiation to the multilayer mirrors using an EUV irradiation apparatus connected to a beam line (SBL -2) of
synchrotron radiation facility Super-ALIS in the NTT Atsugi research and development center. Thickness of deposited
carbon was obtained by using XPS. We investigated carbon deposition rates at various partial pressures of various
organic species. Phenomenological analysis was applied to the obtained carbon deposition rate. Carbon deposition rate
was proportional to the pressure at the proportional EUV intensity. Applying this normalization of the deposition rate
and the EUV intensity, carbon deposition rate seems to behave according to each universal function for each
hydrocarbon species.
We investigated the protection of a Ru-capped Mo/Si multilayer from surface oxidation under exposure to EUV
radiation in the presence of water vapor and isopropyl alcohol (IPA). Degradation of the reflectance of the Ru-capped
Mo/Si multilayer by EUV irradiation was controlled by introducing IPA gas. We also investigated the reduction effect of
the oxide layer in a multilayer mirror by introducing ethanol and exposed EUV. The Ru-capped multilayer sample was
exposed to EUV radiation in the presence of only water vapor to oxidize its surface. The reflectance decreased by about
1.5%. Then the sample was exposed to EUV radiation in the presence of only ethanol vapor. The reflectivity of the
sample was recovered to +0.5%, and the atomic concentration of oxygen in the irradiated area was decreased by EUV
irradiation in the presence of ethanol.
Organic gases cause carbon depositions on the multi-layer mirrors by Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) light irradiations in
EUV lithography tool. The dependences on organic gas species, organic gas pressure and EUV light intensity in the
carbon deposition were researched in order to understand this reaction. EUV light was irradiated on a (Si/Mo) multilayer
mirror sample injecting organic gas like buthane, buthanol, methyl propionate, hexane, perfluoro octane, decane,
decanol, methyl nonanoate, diethyl benzene, dimethyl phthalate and hexadecane. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
measurements revealed that organic gases with heavier molecule weight or higher boiling temperature caused faster
carbon deposition rates. Carbon deposition rates increased linearly with organic gas pressures. Dependence on EUV light
intensity was estimated from comparisons between an EUV light profile and carbon distributions on irradiated samples.
Carbon deposition rates increased rapidly, but became saturated at higher EUV light intensities. Three chemical
reactions, an adsorption, a desorption and a carbon deposition by EUV light irradiation, were taken into account to
explain the behavior of the carbon deposition. Electron irradiation on a mirror sample revealed that photoelectrons
emitting from the mirror surface played an important role in carbon deposition.
The inhibition of contamination of Ru-capped Mo/Si multilayer mirrors was systematically investigated by introducing ethanol into a controlled vacuum that mainly consisted of water vapor. Water vapor was introduced up to several partial pressures of 1.0X10-7 to 3.8X10-5 Pa. At the lowest ethanol pressure, the same degree of reflectance degradation as in the water-only case was observed. However, reflectance degradation was suppressed at ethanol pressures higher than 2.0X10-6 Pa. In the condition of ethanol pressure of 2.0X10-6 Pa, the long-term durability of a Ru capping layer was investigated up to an EUV dose of 6000 J/mm2. This dose was corresponded to the 1-year use of a mirror which would be irradiated by the maximum power expected in actual EUVL tools. As a result of this investigation, it was found that reflectance degradation of a Ru capping layer was suppressed to less than 0.5% until 6000 J/mm2 by introducing ethanol.
New experimental equipment was installed in the NewSUBARU synchrotron radiation facility in order to investigate the contamination inhibition mechanism of projection optics for extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). The equipment consisted of two all-metal sealed chambers, and the atmosphere was accurately controlled a over the wider degree of vacuum compared to the previous experimental equipment. The light source was the long undulator (LU) which can irradiate a sample with high EUV flux density of about 200 mW/mm2. Reflectivity and its distribution of an irradiated sample can be measured in situ. NEXAFS spectrum of the sample can be also obtained in situ utilizing the beam-line monochromator, which is a useful method for surface analysis. Using this equipment, EUV irradiation, reflectance measurement, and surface analysis were carried out for Si-capped Mo/Si multilayer (ML) samples. A wavelength dependence of photoemission current was changed at the irradiated area, which suggested that the phase change of standing wave at the ML surface occurred from contamination.
Reflectance changes during the EUV irradiation were in-situ measured using two different experimental systems. One system consisted of slight high hydrocarbon (HC) content chamber and the other consisted of low HC content chamber. Distribution maps of the reflectance changes were quite different from each other. Especially, the reflectance change at the center of the EUV irradiation area was suppressed when the high HC content system was used. The surface analysis using XPS was performed. According to the analysis, it was found that two reflectance changes were arising from different reasons. It would seem that the origin of the different reasons were difference of the residual gas atmosphere.
An EUV irradiation and reflectance measurement system using intense EUV radiation emitted from a long undulator at the NewSUBARU synchrotron radiation (SR) facility was developed.
The system can measure the real-time reflectance drop during intense EUV irradiation and reflectance mapping as well as the photoemission current after irradiation at a fixed energy for atom absorption.
The irradiated EUV beam was very intense, and the power density was about 400 mW/mm2. The reflectances of Si- and Ru-capped Mo/Si multilayer mirrors (MLMs) were measured under several conditions of EUV power, i.e., 120, 15, and 5 mW/mm2 for Si-capped MLMs, or of water vapor, i.e., 6.6x10-5 and 1.3x10-2 Pa for Ru-capped MLMs. Each reflectance was reduced as the dose was increased. The reflectance was significantly reduced at the higher partial pressure of water vapor. When the intensity of the beam flux was reduced using ND filters, the reflectance was significantly reduced under the same conditions of atmosphere and dose. Carbon cleaning and oxidation were progressed in the beam center although carbon deposition was much progressed in the beam fringe for Si-capped MLM. Ru-capped MLM was more resistant to radiation damage than Si-capped MLM at each partial pressure of water vapor. The results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for Ru-capped MLM showed that deposited and desorbed carbons were balanced at the beam center and carbon deposition occurred on the fringe of the beam.
Radiation damage to multilayer mirrors has been intently studied in the view of the EUV lithography (EUVL) application in recent years.
To investigate the radiation damage, a reflectance measurement system for EUVL mirrors was developed at beam line 9 at the NewSUBARU SR facility. This system can irradiate the mirror using EUV radiation from a long undulator (10.8 m) and simultaneously measure changes in reflectance caused by radiation damage. The actual measurement of the power density of the EUV radiation at the sample mirror was about 500 mW/mm2, which is sufficiently intense for quickly investigating radiation damage. The EUV wavelength, 13.5 nm, was selected from the undulator radiations by using a planar multilayer mirror with a maximum reflectance of 13.5 nm. The θ and 2 θ stages were adopted for reflectance measurements, making the system more valuable and flexible. Because the system is equipped with a removable pinhole to restrict the incident beam size and x-z automatic stages, it can also be used to measure the spatial distribution of the reflectance and photoemission current.
The ultimate vacuum was in the order of 10-5 Pa even though the automatic stages were moving. Some aspects, which depend on the atmospheres, capping layers on mirrors, and flux density of the irradiation beam, were measured. The photoemission current was also measured. These measurements provide important information about the extent of the radiation damage and whether or not it is proportional to the flux density.
KEYWORDS: Adhesives, Oxygen, Metals, Quartz, Lithography, Systems modeling, Transmittance, Information operations, Lenses, Scanning electron microscopy
Purging and reduction of out-gassing are very important issues that need to be treated in order to realize F2 laser lithography system. Several methods of purging are tried and out-gases from metals, O-rings, lubricants, and an adhesive are analyzed. Metal surfaces mainly release oxygen and water independent of surface roughness, Ni plating, or elements. Other substances are not detected by API-MS or GC-MS. Since O-rings are indispensable to make gas-tight structures, several kinds of O-rings made of fluoro-compounds are tested. Black fluoro-rubber o-ring, O-ring F, is recommended from the view of organic out-gassing but Teflon-based fluoro-elastomer, O-ring A, is a good candidate in terms of the water out-gassing. Greases emit a large amount of out-gases even when the samples are not irradiated by 157 nm laser. As an adhesive, Adhesive A is recommended because of the fact that it does not release as much organic and inorganic compounds which may absorb 157 nm laser light. Finally preliminary demonstration using a model exposure system is performed to obtain purging time for several cases.
Purging and contamination are two important issues that need to be treated in order to realize F2 laser lithography system. For the purpose of developing gas-purging and chemically clean technologies, we designed and constructed an experimental set-up. It is used for the study of purging and out-gassing evaluation in order to obtain useful data for development of exposure system. Preliminary experiments showed that purging condition has a strong effect on the residual oxygen and water concentration in the final gas-replaced atmosphere. And we have found that the amount of out-gas depends on the surface finish method of the material used through analyses of impurity gas examination with or without laser irradiation.
The applicability of synchrotron radiation (SR) lithography to fabricate a giga bit scale dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cell array structure with minimum feature size of 0.14micrometers is demonstrated. Four lithography levels, isolation, transfer gate, bit line and storage node, were exposed by SR lithography. Exposure was carried out at Mitsubishi SR lithography facility using Canon x-ray stepper XFPA with a new negative tone resist and home-made x-ray mask set for each exposure level. These masks were composed of 2micrometers SiC membrane and 0.5micrometers W-Ti absorber. To minimize the mask-induced distortion, we applied the various techniques to the x-ray mask fabrication, changing the mask fabrication process flow, step annealing and electron beam multiple writing, and as the result, the pattern placement accuracy between two exposure level masks was about 50nm. Exposure latitude was about 22 percent for 0.15micrometers line and space pattern at the proximity gap of 30micrometers , and the critical dimension deviation for 0.14micrometers transfer gate pattern was 0.014micrometers at the almost same position in the mask in spite of the replication on the real DRAM topographic structure. The overlay accuracy was about 80nm for 20 X 20mm2 area. These results show SR lithography is the promising technique for giga bit level device fabrication.
It is shown that curved slab targets are effective in compensating x-ray refraction due to electron density gradient in the expanding plasma. Significant improvement in the beam divergence and laser intensity has been observed. Soft x-ray laser of 1 mrad divergence has been generated in double- pass amplification of a collisionally-excited Ne-like Ge laser with the curved target. Generation of a polarized beam with a polarizing half cavity is described. Initial results of in-line holography as well as Fourier transform holography using the Ge laser as the light source are also presented.
We have selected Cr and C as a material pair of multilayer (ML) mirrors for soft x rays at the wavelength near 5 nm. The Cr-C ML structures have successfully been fabricated with rf- magnetron sputtering. The ML structures have been characterized with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), x-ray diffraction, and reflectivity measurement by SR light. From the observation of TEM images, Cr-C MLs had uniform and less-defective layered structures with the d-spacing down to 2.4 nm. Reflectivities at normal and grazing incidence were remarkably decreased with decreasing the ML d-spacing. Normal incidence reflectivity at 5 nm was as high as 7%. The regularity of the d-spacing of the MLs was evaluated with a moire image that was formed by putting a reference stripe pattern on the cross-sectional TEM micrograph. Compared to Ni-C MLs, Cr-C is a preferable material combination for x-ray mirrors for shorter wavelength and normal incidence.
We have successfully demonstrated double pass enhancement of amplified spontaneous emission of soft x rays, 23.2 and 23.6 nm of 3p - 3s transitions in Ne-like Ge, using an x-ray multilayer mirror. In this paper, we report on the fabrication of the mirror and analysis of its damage suffered during the experiments. The mirror used was a Mo-Si multilayer mirror with the reflectivity of 35% at the wavelength of 23.6 nm, deposited by an rf-sputtering system. In the damaged area of the mirror, only the multilayer was locally evaporated and the bare substrate underneath appeared. The size of the damaged area corresponded to the aperture size. We carried out the simulation on the spatial and temporal distribution of the mirror temperature during the experiment. Assuming that thermal x rays enter the mirror with the largest amount of energy among all the fluxes at the early stage of the enhancement, the result of the simulation can explain the damage feature and the temporal profile of the intensity of the amplified spontaneous emissions.
Basic characteristics of soft x-ray lasers generated as amplified spontaneous emission are described. Experimental results on soft x-ray amplification in neon-like germanium ions, obtained recently at the Institute of Laser Engineering, are reported. By comparing the experimental results with a simplified model on amplified spontaneous emission, basic parameters such as coherence and brightness of the Ge soft x-ray laser are evaluated.
We have previously reported that columnar-structures were formed in electron beam (EB) deposited and DCmagnetron
sputtered Mo-Si layered synthetic microstructures (LSMs). The columnar structures reduced x-ray reflectivity
by roughing layer interfaces of the LSMs. We here investigated the conditions to suppress columnar structure
formation, by varying the substrate temperature (T9) in EB deposition and the argon pressure (PAT ) in D C- and
RF-sputtering. In the EB deposited LSMs, the columnar structure disappeared and almost uniform LSMs were obtamed
both at T□ 400°C and T9< -155°C. In the DC- and RF-sputtered LSMs, the columnar structure formation
was suppressed by lowering PAr. The measured x-ray reflectivity of the LSMs increased according to the suppression
of the columnar structure formation.
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