Most problems in photomask fabrication such as pattern collapse, haze, and cleaning damage are related to the behavior
of surfaces and interfaces of resists, opaque layers, and quartz substrates. Therefore, it is important to control the
corresponding surface and interface energies in photomask fabrication processes. In particular, adhesion analysis in
microscopic regions is strongly desirable to optimize material and process designs in photomask fabrication. We applied
the direct peeling (DP) method with a scanning probe microscope (SPM) tip and measured the adhesion of resist patterns
on Cr and quartz surfaces for photomask process optimization. We measured adhesion and frictional forces between the
resulting collapsed resist pillar and the Cr or the quartz surface before and after the sliding. We also studied the effect of
surface property of the Cr and quartz surfaces to resist adhesion. The adhesion could be controlled by surface
modification using silanes and surface roughness on Cr blanks. We also discuss the relationship between the adhesion
observed with the DP method and the properties of the modified surfaces including water contact angles and local
adhesive forces measured from force-distance curves with an SPM.
KEYWORDS: Near field optics, Near field scanning optical microscopy, Optical fibers, Photoresist materials, Optical signal processing, Image resolution, Near field, Silicon, Semiconducting wafers, Atomic force microscopy
This paper describes the design and applications to optical processing and recording of a Scanning Near-field Optic/Atomic-force Microscope (SNOAM). A sharpened and bent optical fiber was used as a near-field optical probe as well as an atomic force microscope probe in a vertical vibrating mode. SNOAM provides simultaneous topographical and optical images with high resolution beyond the diffraction limit. As an example of an application to optical processing, near-field exposures have been demonstrated by a SNOAM. We produced pit and line patterns exposed and developed in commercial photoresist film. In the processing mode, the pit and line patterns down to a width of 100 nm have been fabricated on a Si wafer through the Integrated Circuits process.
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