Actinic defect counting statistics over 1 cm(sup 2) area of EUVL mask blank

摘要

As a continuation of comparison experiments between EUV inspection and visibleinspection of defects on EUVL mask blanks, we report on the result of an experiment where the EUV defect inspection tool is used to perform at-wavelength defect counting over 1 cm(sup 2) of EUVL mask blank. Initial EUV inspection found five defects over the scanned area and the subsequent optical scattering inspection was able to detect all of the five defects. Therefore, if there are any defects that are only detectable by EUV inspection, the density is lower than the order of unity per cm(sup 2). An upgrade path to substantially increase the overall throughput of the EUV inspection system is also identified in the manuscript.