Focused helium and neon ion beam induced etching for advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography mask repair

摘要

The gas field ion microscope was used to investigate helium and neon ion beam induced etching of nickel as a candidate technique for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography mask editing. No discernable nickel etching was observed for room temperature helium exposures at 16 and 30 keV in the dose range of 1 x 10(15)-1 x 10(18) He+/cm(2); however, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed subsurface damage to the underlying Mo-Si multilayer EUV mirror. Subsequently, neon beam induced etching at 30 keV was investigated over a similar dose range and successfully removed the entire 50 nm nickel top absorber film at a dose of similar to 3 x 10(17) Ne+/cm(2). Similarly, TEM revealed subsurface damage in the underlying Mo-Si multilayer. To further understand the helium and neon damage, the authors simulated the ion-solid interactions with our EnvizION Monte-Carlo model, which reasonably correlated the observed damage and bubble formation to the nuclear energy loss and the implanted inert gas concentration, respectively. A critical nuclear energy density loss of similar to 80 eV/nm(3) and critical implant concentration of similar to 2.5 x 10(20) atoms/cm(3) have been estimated for damage generation in the multilayer structure. (C) 2014 American Vacuum Society.