Interstitial type absorber for extreme ultraviolet mask
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsYi-Jhih Lin, Pei-Cheng Hsu, Ta-Cheng Lien, Chia-Jen Chen, Hsin-Chang Lee
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Abstract
A method for lithographically patterning a photoresist is provided. The method includes receiving a wafer with the photoresist and exposing the photoresist using an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation reflected by an EUV mask. The EUV mask includes a substrate, a reflective multilayer stack on the substrate, a capping layer on the reflective multilayer stack, a patterned absorber layer on the capping layer. The patterned absorber layer includes a matrix metal and an interstitial element occupying interstitial sites of the matrix metal, and a size ratio of the interstitial element to the matrix metal is from about 0.41 to about 0.59.
Claims20
A method for lithographically patterning a photoresist, comprising:
- receiving a wafer with the photoresist;
- and
- exposing the photoresist using an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation reflected by an EUV mask, the EUV mask including:
- a substrate;
- a reflective multilayer stack on the substrate;
- a capping layer on the reflective multilayer stack;
- and
- a patterned absorber layer on the capping layer, the patterned absorber layer being a topmost layer of the EUV mask, wherein the patterned absorber layer is a single layer consisting of a matrix metal exhibiting a cubic lattice structure or a hexagonal lattice structure and an interstitial element occupying octahedral interstitial sites of the lattice structure of the matrix metal, wherein the matrix metal is selected from the group consisting of zirconium (Zr), iridium (Ir), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), vanadium (V), yttrium (Y) and hafnium (Hf), and the interstitial element is selected from the group consisting of boron (B), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), silicon (Si) and phosphorus (P).
A method of using an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask, comprising:
- exposing the EUV mask to an incident radiation, the EUV mask including:
- a reflective multilayer stack on a substrate;
- a capping layer on the reflective multilayer stack;
- and
- a patterned absorber layer on the capping layer, the patterned absorber layer being the topmost layer of the EUV mask, wherein the patterned absorber layer is a single layer consisting of a matrix metal exhibiting a cubic lattice structure or a hexagonal lattice structure and an interstitial element occupying octahedral interstitial sites of the lattice structure of the matrix metal, wherein the matrix metal is selected from the group consisting of zirconium (Zr), iridium (Ir), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), vanadium (V), yttrium (Y) and hafnium (Hf), and the interstitial element is selected from the group consisting of boron (B), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), silicon (Si) and phosphorus (P);
- absorbing a portion of the incident radiation in the patterned absorber layer;
- reflecting a portion of the incident radiation from the reflective multilayer stack;
- and
- directing the portion of the incident radiation that is reflected by the reflective multilayer stack to a photoresist on a wafer.
An extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask, comprising:
- a substrate;
- a reflective multilayer stack on a first surface of the substrate;
- a capping layer on the reflective multilayer stack;
- and
- a patterned absorber layer on the capping layer, the patterned absorber layer being the topmost layer of the EUV mask, wherein the patterned absorber layer is a single layer consisting of a matrix metal exhibiting a cubic lattice structure or a hexagonal lattice structure and an interstitial element occupying octahedral interstitial sites of the matrix metal, wherein the matrix metal is selected from the group consisting of chromium (Cr), titanium (Ti), tungsten (W), zirconium (Zr), iridium (Ir), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), vanadium (V), yttrium (Y) and hafnium (Hf), and the interstitial element is selected from the group consisting of boron (B), silicon (Si) and phosphorus (P).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.