End point determination by means of contrast gas
AssigneeCarl Zeiss SMT GmbH
InventorDaniel Rhinow
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention encompasses a method of repairing a defect on a lithography mask, comprising the following steps: (a.) directing a particle beam onto the defect to induce a local etching operation on the defect; (b.) monitoring the etching operation using backscattered particles and/or secondary particles and/or another free-space signal generated by the etching operation, in order to detect a transition from the local etching operation on the defect to a local etching operation on an element of the mask beneath the defect, and (c.) feeding in at least one contrast gas in order to increase contrast in the detection of the transition.
Claims20
A method of repairing a defect of a lithography mask, comprising:
- a. directing a particle beam onto the defect to induce a local etching operation on the defect,
- b. monitoring the etching operation using backscattered particles and/or secondary particles and/or any other free-space signal generated by the etching operation, in order to detect a transition from the local etching operation on the defect to a local etching operation on an element of the mask beneath the defect, and
- c. feeding in at least one predetermined gas in order to increase contrast in the detection of the transition.
A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program with instructions which, when executed, cause a computer to perform a method of repairing a defect of a lithography mask, the method including:
- directing a particle beam onto the defect to induce a local etching operation on the defect,
- monitoring the etching operation using backscattered particles and/or secondary particles and/or any other free-space signal generated by the etching operation, in order to detect a transition from the local etching operation on the defect to a local etching operation on an element of the mask beneath the defect, and
- feeding in at least one predetermined gas in order to increase contrast in the detection of the transition.
An apparatus for repairing a defect on a lithography mask, comprising:
- a. means of directing a particle beam onto the defect to induce an etching operation on the defect,
- b. means of monitoring the etching operation using backscattered particles and/or secondary particles and/or another free-space signal generated by the etching operation, in order to detect a transition from the etching operation on the defect to an etching operation on an element of the mask beneath the defect,
- c. means of feeding in at least one predetermined gas in order to increase contrast in the detection of the transition.
An apparatus for repairing a defect in a lithography material, the apparatus comprising a non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program with instructions which, when executed, cause the apparatus to perform a method of repairing a defect of a lithography mask, the method including:
- directing a particle beam onto the defect to induce a local etching operation on the defect,
- monitoring the etching operation using backscattered particles and/or secondary particles and/or any other free-space signal generated by the etching operation, in order to detect a transition from the local etching operation on the defect to a local etching operation on an element of the mask beneath the defect, and
- feeding in at least one predetermined gas in order to increase contrast in the detection of the transition.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.