In mask-making process with e-beam lithography, the process stabilization can be evaluated by looking at the fluctuation of critical dimension (CD) uniformity, mean to target(MTT), and defect controllability. Among them, the capability of CD uniformity and mean to target depends strongly on the acceleration voltage of an exposure machine. Generally, a high acceleration voltage has advantages on dose latitude, pattern fidelity and CD linearity due to its small forward scattering range. Therefore, those merits using a high acceleration voltage can provide a higher yield for production photomask. In this paper, we have examined the CD uniformity and the MTT capability for production photomask fabrication in order to compare the process stabilization between 50 keV and 10 keV. By choosing a 50 keV exposure, significant improvements can be made in CD uniformity and MTT capability.

Date Published: 22 January 2001
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 4186, 20th Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology, (22 January 2001); doi: 10.1117/12.410730

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4186:
20th Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology
Brian J. Grenon; Giang T. Dao, Editor(s)