Manufacturing of test structures using e-beam lithography for use in characterization and quality control of metrology tools used in semiconductor manufacturing

A method for making one or more test structures suitable for characterizing and calibrating semiconductor metrology equipment, wherein the one or more test structures are fabricated by:

• selecting a suitable first substrate;
• performing a cleaning process on the first substrate to remove residues and contaminates from the surfaces of the first substrate;
• depositing a first layer of gold using physical vapor deposition onto a surface of the first substrate;
• dehydrating the first substrate;
• after dehydrating the first substrate, vapor depositing a monolayer of hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) onto the first layer of gold;
• after deposing the monolayer of HMDS, depositing a second layer of photoresist sensitive to e-beam lithography radiation by spin casting onto the monolayer of HMDS on the first layer of gold;
• depositing a third layer of gold using physical vapor deposition onto a top surface of the second layer of photoresist;
• performing electron-beam exposure lithography onto the second layer of photoresist to transfer a test structure design layout to the second layer of photoresist;
• performing a post-exposure bake on the second layer of photoresist;
• removing the third layer of gold deposited on top of the second layer of photoresist;
• performing development of the second layer of photoresist to pattern the second layer of photoresist;
• depositing a thin-film fourth layer of chromium onto the first substrate using physical vapor deposition whereby the fourth layer of chromium is deposited onto the second layer of photoresist where the second layer of photoresist remains after development and whereby the fourth layer of chromium is deposited directly onto the first layer of gold deposited onto the surface of the first substrate;
• performing lift-off patterning of the fourth layer of chromium by removing the patterned second layer of photoresist thereby leaving the fourth layer of chromium only on those areas on the first layer of the gold where the second layer of photoresist was removed by development to provide a plurality of patterned chromium features;
• and
• dicing the first substrate into plurality of die, each die of the plurality of die including patterned chromium features that protrude vertically from the first layer of the gold.