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US 12,216,413 B2Granted
Device and method to remove debris from an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsChun-Han Lin, Chieh Hsieh, Sheng-Kang Yu, Shang-Chieh Chien, Heng-Hsin Liu, Li-Jui Chen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method includes irradiating debris deposited in an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system with laser, controlling one or more of a wavelength of the laser or power of the laser to selectively vaporize the debris and limit damage to the EUV) lithography system, and removing the vaporized debris.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- irradiating metal debris deposited in an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system with a laser having a wavelength greater than absorption wavelengths of the metal debris and a material of the EUV lithography system;
- controlling a frequency of the laser to ionize the metal debris;
- and
- removing the metal debris.
1 more element
A method comprising:
- irradiating one or more tin droplet in a zone of excitation of an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source apparatus of an EUV lithography system with a first laser to generate EUV radiation, wherein the first laser is an excitation laser;
- detecting for a presence of tin debris deposited on a surface of an intermediate focus (IF)-cap module of the EUV light source apparatus;
- determining that accumulation of the tin debris is at or above a desired level;
- irradiating the tin debris with a second laser having a wavelength greater than an absorption wavelength of the tin debris;
- controlling a power of the second laser such that the tin debris is vaporized;
- cleaning the surface of the IF-cap module by removing the vaporized debris;
- and
- exposing a reticle to the EUV radiation for patterning a semiconductor substrate.
5 more elements
A debris cleaning apparatus, comprising:
- a laser source configured to generate a pulsed laser for irradiating tin debris deposited on a surface of an intermediate focus (IF)-cap module of an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system, wherein the laser source is configured to control a frequency of the pulsed laser such that tin debris when irradiated is vaporized;
- and
- a vacuuming tool positioned over the surface of the IF-cap module, the laser source and the vacuuming tool being operated simultaneously to remove the vaporized tin debris and reduce migration of the vaporized tin debris in the EUV lithography system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.