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US 12,366,798 B2Granted
Lithography mask and methods
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsChien-Cheng Chen, Huan-Ling Lee, Ta-Cheng Lien, Chia-Jen Chen, Hsin-Chang Lee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A lithography mask including a substrate, a phase shift layer on the substrate and an etch stop layer is provided. The phase shift layer is patterned and the substrate is protected from etching by the etch stop layer. The etch stop layer can be a material that is semi-transmissive to light used in photolithography processes or it can be transmissive to light used in photolithography processes.
Claims18
A lithography mask, comprising:
- a substrate;
- a semi-transmissive etch stop layer on the substrate, wherein the semi-transmissive etch stop layer comprises a material selected from Ru—Nb, Ru—Zr and Ru—Y;
- a phase shift layer on the semi-transmissive etch stop layer, wherein the phase shift layer is selected from MoSi, MoSiCON, MoSiCN, MoSiCO and MoSiC, and the semi-transmissive etch stop layer is between the substrate and the phase shift layer, at least a portion of the semi-transmissive etch stop layer not overlapped by the phase shift layer;
- and
- an image border feature on the phase shift layer, the image border feature including a material that has a light blocking characteristic and the image border feature overlapping the phase shift layer only in a border region.
2 more elements
A lithography mask, comprising:
- a quartz substrate;
- a patterned semi-transmissive etch stop layer on the quartz substrate, wherein the patterned semi-transmissive etch stop layer comprises Ru—Y;
- and
- a patterned phase shift layer including an MoSi compound on the patterned semi-transmissive etch stop layer.
1 more element
A method of forming a lithography mask, comprising:
- forming an etch stop layer on a substrate, wherein the etch stop layer comprises Ru—Y;
- forming a phase shift layer on the etch stop layer, wherein the phase shift layer comprises an MoSi-containing compound doped with an element selected from B, C, Al, Ge, Sn and Ta;
- forming a patterning layer on the phase shift layer, the patterning layer including a material that has a light blocking characteristic;
- forming a patterned hard mask layer on the patterning layer;
- etching the patterning layer to form a plurality of openings in the patterning layer using the patterned hard mask layer as an etch mask, the plurality of openings exposing a surface of the phase shift layer;
- etching the phase shift layer to form a plurality of openings therein using the etched patterning layer as an etch mask, the plurality of openings in the phase shift layer exposing a surface of the etch stop layer;
- and
- etching the etch stop layer through the plurality of openings in the phase shift layer to form a plurality of openings in the etch stop layer, the plurality of openings in the etch stop layer exposing a surface of the substrate.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.