Characterization and possible repair of defects in Soft X-ray Projection Lithography masks

摘要

Soft X-ray Projection Lithography (SXPL) is one promising technique for the mass production of integrated circuits with minimum features sizes below 100 nm. Mask fabrication, inspection and repair processes are critically important to all forms of lithography, including SXPL which requires a reflection mask (a substrate coated with a x-ray multilayer coating and patterned with thin metallization layer). Processes for the repair of defects in the metallization patterns have been developed, but at present, there exist no processes for the repair of defects in the multilayer coatings deposited in LLNL's magnetron sputter deposition facility, which produces state of the art x-ray multilayer mirrors. We also propose one possible process for the repair of defects in these multilayer coatings.