Due to the ongoing development of submicron devices for mass production, the reticles used in the masters for forming patterns are being subjected to increasingly stricter quality requirements. For 5X reticles, even a minute defect less than 0.5um in size is transferred to the wafer. Moreover, a wide variety of defects must be detected and eliminated. There include complex pattern layout errors, substrate defects, and transparent foreign substance, as well as simple white or clear defects. Regarding the sizes of defects, recent improvements in defect inspection machine have made it possible to detect defects as small as 0.2um, yet it is evident that existing inspection technology is not able to cope with an array of new defects that were previouly not detected during the pre-submicron process.

Date Published: 25 July 1989
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 1088, Optical/Laser Microlithography II, (25 July 1989); doi: 10.1117/12.953133

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1088:
Optical/Laser Microlithography II
Burn Jeng Lin, Editor(s)