Amorphous Refractory Compound Film Material for X-Ray Mask Absorbers

We proposed that the stress of the side walls of an absorber pattern causes the pattern distortion of an X-ray mask. The surfaces of the pattern side walls have a high compressive stress layer because they are easily oxidized in air after absorber pattern etching. This stress becomes a serious probl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJapanese Journal of Applied Physics Vol. 39; no. 9R; p. 5329
Main Authors Iba, Yoshihisa, Kumasaka, Fumiaki, Iizuka, Takashi, Yamabe, Masaki
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.09.2000
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Summary:We proposed that the stress of the side walls of an absorber pattern causes the pattern distortion of an X-ray mask. The surfaces of the pattern side walls have a high compressive stress layer because they are easily oxidized in air after absorber pattern etching. This stress becomes a serious problem in proportion to the high degree of pattern integration. To lower the surface oxide layer stress of the film, we developed a TaGe nitride (TaGeN) absorber. The oxide layer stress of TaGeN films becomes lower with increasing the N 2 content in the sputtering gas, and the stress value of Ta 0.35 Ge 0.20 N 0.45 can be decreased to 1/17 that of TaGe. We fabricated a TaGeN X-ray mask and practically demonstrated that the TaGeN absorber was effective for high image placement accuracy to an X-ray mask having high dense patterns with a 0.1 µm pattern size.
ISSN:0021-4922
1347-4065
DOI:10.1143/JJAP.39.5329