Extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is a critical technology for producing the finest patterns in semiconductor manufacturing, and the development of reliable EUV pellicle is crucial to prevent mask contamination and ensuring pattern quality. However, achieving stability over 5000 wafer exposures with more than 90% EUV transmittance in thin film is challenging. Although research on porous pellicles using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is being ongoing, these materials still face difficulties with durability in hydrogen radical environments. To address these issues, we present a multilayer structure that enhances EUV transmittance while also improving thermo-mechanical stability. Our findings demonstrate that stacking layers of MoSi2/Si pellicle can improve the ultimate tensile strength (UTS), achieving 2.1 GPa compared to the single layered MoSi2 pellicle targeting the same EUVT of 90%. Meanwhile, although the MoSi2/Si multilayer structure consists of thinner emission layers, minimal loss of emissivity was confirmed due to the cumulative contribution of emission from each stacked layer.
Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) is employed in the mass production of advanced semiconductor devices, and the development of the high numerical aperture (NA) system for future 3 nm nodes is underway. However, the current tantalum (Ta)-based EUV masks face limitations in imaging performance for finer patterns, necessitating the exploration of alternative EUV mask absorbers. Furthermore, several promising absorber materials present challenges in etching during mask fabrication, leading to delays in their utilization. In this study, we propose a novel approach-the introduction of ion implantation processes in EUV mask fabrication to enhance the etching performance of absorber materials. We employed argon (Ar) ion implantation to enhance the etchability of platinum-tungsten (Pt-W) alloys. We not only acquired an implantation energy and dose condition that had negligible impact on film characteristics, but also confirmed that the etching rate of PtW increased by approximately 1.4 times after ion implantation, resulting in higher sidewall angles in patterns. In conclusion, the ion implantation process offers a practical solution for improving etchability without compromising film characteristics, demonstrating the potential for manufacturing EUV masks with absorbers featuring low etching performance.
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