Apparatus for reducing pellicle darkening
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorJames M. Powers
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Pellicles separated by a distance sufficient to allow a purge gas help repair damage to at least one of the pellicles caused by exposure to an incident radiation and allowing at least a minimum amount of radiation to reach a semiconductor wafer sufficient to perform a desired photolythography process. Moreover, the two pellicles separated by a sufficient distance such that a dispersed purge gas dispersed between the pellicles will not absorb more than an amount of energy from the incident radiation so as to prevent a desired amount of the radiation to reach a semiconductor wafer located a certain distance away from the pellicles.
Claims21
An apparatus comprising:
- a first pellicle;
- a second pellicle parallel to the first pellicle;
- a purge gas dispersed between the first and second pellicles to protect areas of at least one of the first and second pellicles from damage resulting from being exposed to an incident light.
An apparatus comprising:
- first means for protecting a semiconductor mask from contaminates and for allowing a second portion of incident radiation to reach the semiconductor mask;
- second means for helping to prevent damage to the first means caused by a first portion of the incident radiation by passing through the first means.
The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the purge gas comprises a combination of O2 and any member of the group of claim 21.
A method comprising:
- positioning a reticle above a semiconductor wafer;
- exposing the semiconductor wafer to an incident radiation, which passes through two pellicles separated by a distance within which a purge gas comprising O2 is dispersed.
- protecting areas of at least one of the two pellicles from damage resulting from being exposed to the incident radiation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.