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US 12,681,382 B2Granted
Method and apparatuses for disposing of excess material of a photolithographic mask
AssigneeCarl Zeiss SMT GmbH
InventorsMichael Budach, Christof Baur, Klaus Edinger, Tristan Bret
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present application relates to a method for disposing of excess material of a photolithographic mask, wherein the method comprises the following steps: (a) enlarging a surface of the excess material; (b) displacing the enlarged excess material on the photolithographic mask using at least one first probe of a scanning probe microscope; and (c) removing the displaced enlarged excess material from the photolithographic mask.
Claims27
A method comprising:
- providing a deposition gas;
- providing at least one additive gas comprising ammonia;
- providing a particle beam incident on a surface of excess material arranged on a surface of the mask, wherein the excess material is displaceable;
- displacing the excess material from a transmissive or reflective region of the photolithographic mask to a region of an absorbing pattern element of the photolithographic mask;
- depositing a first material onto the excess material while the excess material is on the absorbing pattern element of the photolithographic mask, the depositing being performed based at least in part on the deposition gas, the additive gas and the particle beam and enlarging the excess material;
- and
- removing enlarged excess material from the photolithographic mask.
4 more elements
A method comprising:
- providing a deposition gas;
- providing at least one additive gas comprising ammonia;
- providing a particle beam incident on a surface of excess material arranged on a surface of the photolithographic mask;
- displacing the excess material from a transmissive or reflective region of the photolithographic mask to a region of an absorbing pattern element of the photolithographic mask;
- depositing a first material onto the excess material while the excess material is on the absorbing pattern element of the photolithographic mask, the depositing being performed based at least in part on the deposition gas, the additive gas and the particle beam and enlarging the excess material to form enlarged excess material, wherein the first material comprises at least one of carbon, a metal carbonyl, or a metal halide;
- and
- removing the enlarged excess material from the photolithographic mask.
4 more elements
A method comprising:
- processing a photolithographic mask having excess material on a surface of the mask, comprising:
- displacing the excess material from a transmissive or reflective region of the photolithographic mask to a region of an absorbing pattern element of the photolithographic mask;
- prior to applying a cleaning process that uses a cleaning fluid to clean the mask, performing targeted deposition of a first material on the excess material while the excess material is on the absorbing pattern element of the photolithographic mask, the targeted deposition being performed to increase a height of the excess material, wherein the excess material prior to the targeted deposition has a first height and after the targeted deposition has a second height;
- and
- applying the cleaning process by using the cleaning fluid to remove the excess material having the second height, wherein the cleaning fluid has a lower flow velocity at the first height and a higher flow velocity at the second height, the second height is selected to enable the excess material having the second height to be removed by the cleaning fluid with the higher flow velocity.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.