Soft x-ray submicron lithography using multiply charged ions
AssigneeRuxam, Inc.
InventorsKonstantin S. Golovanivsky, Erazm M. Omeljanovsky
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Apparatus and methods for submicron lithography of semiconductor materials, circuits and other objects. A source of multiply charged ions is applied to a thin layer of electrically conductive material. The recombination of ions and free electrons in the layer produce soft x-ray radiation which used to irradiate an object. The object may include a semiconductor substrate, an x-ray sensitive resist, and an x-ray absorbing mask for forming semiconductor circuit devices. The soft x-rays are produced by careful selection of the type and energy of multiply charged ions and the thickness of the thin electro-conductive layer, which may be a light element metal.
Claims31
A method for x-ray lithography on a material comprising the steps of:
- b) placing a mask over the resist wherein the mask is not transparent to x-rays and contains a pattern so that some of the resist is not covered by the mask;
- c) providing a layer of material over the mask and the not covered resist, the layer containing free electrons;
- and
- d) irradiating the layer of material with multiply charged ions so that the ions interact with free electrons and produce soft x-ray photons having a photon energy between 0.1 and 1 keV for sensitizing the resist.
Apparatus for use in irradiating an object with multiply charged ions comprising:
- an ion source;
- electrodes for extracting multiply charged ions from the ion source and forming an ion beam;
- a selector for selecting ions having a charge to mass ratio within a predetermined range;
- a system for converting the selected ion beam into a homogenous slow ion flow, wherein the ion beam has a photon energy of the order of several keV;
- and
- a holder for positioning an object to be irradiated into the ion beam flow.
Apparatus for soft x-ray lithographic processing of a plurality of objects comprising:
- a source for producing a beam of multiply charged ions;
- a band of material for supporting a plurality of objects;
- a plurality of objects to be irradiated, the objects having a thin layer of a light element electro-conductive material including free electrons and being spaced apart along the band;
- and
- means for advancing the band relative to the ion beam for irradiating each object with soft x-rays produced by interaction of the multiply charged ions and free electrons.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.