Masks for electron projection lithography require the use of thin membrane structures due tot he short scattering range of electrons in solid materials. The two leading mask formats for electron projection lithography are the continuous membrane scatterer mask and the stencil mask. The reduced mechanical stability of the membranes used for electron projection masks relative to conventional optical masks leads to increased levels of process induced image placement distortions. This paper evaluates the image placement distortions due to the pattern transfer processes on the continuous membrane mask format. Image placement was measured from both a cross-mask and intramembrane perspective to evaluate the effects of different patterns, pattern densities and density gradients on the observed image placement and the experimental results obtained were then compared to those predicted by finite element modeling.

Date Published: 20 August 2001
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 4343, Emerging Lithographic Technologies V, (20 August 2001); doi: 10.1117/12.436664

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4343:
Emerging Lithographic Technologies V
Elizabeth A. Dobisz, Editor(s)