Focused ion-beam imaging of defects on deep-UV single-layer halftone masks

Hiroko Nakamura; Haruki Komano; Kazuyoshi Sugihara; T. Koike; Iwao Higashikawa

doi:10.1117/12.245222

24 July 1996 Focused ion-beam imaging of defects on deep-UV single-layer halftone masks

Hiroko Nakamura, Haruki Komano, Kazuyoshi Sugihara, T. Koike, Iwao Higashikawa

Proceedings Volume 2793, Photomask and X-Ray Mask Technology III; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.245222
Event: Symposium on Photomask and X-Ray Mask Technology, 1996, Kawasaki City, Japan

Abstract

At the first stage of defect repair on masks with focused ion beam (FIB), it is necessary to recognize defects by imaging. One of the problems in halftone mask imaging by FIB is that the contrast between halftone (HT) film and quartz (Qz) substrate is not sufficient to recognize material. We investigated the methods of the defect area distinction in deep UV silicon nitride (SiN_x) single-layer halftone masks to avoid the transmittance decrease of masks induced by FIB irradiation. The cause of the difficulty in the area distinction is that the difference between the mean secondary electron intensity of HT area and that of Qz area is small in comparison with the width of the secondary electron intensity distributions. A conventional filter was found to be effective to narrow the intensity distributions and the area of defects on halftone masks could be recognized by means of the image filter in the images obtained with a low FIB dose.

Citation Download Citation

Hiroko Nakamura, Haruki Komano, Kazuyoshi Sugihara, T. Koike, and Iwao Higashikawa "Focused ion-beam imaging of defects on deep-UV single-layer halftone masks", Proc. SPIE 2793, Photomask and X-Ray Mask Technology III, (24 July 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.245222

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