Editor’s note: This article is by
Matthew Colburn, PhD, senior manager Strategic Patterning Research, IBM
Research
This week our Semiconductor Technology Research will announce
the first successful inspection of a patterned Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) mask
through a novel EUV pellicle membrane. This breakthrough helps lay the
foundation to integrate EUV lithography into the standard CMOS chip making
process.
 |
Image
of mask used for
comparative inspection
(no pellicle top, half-pellicle bottom) |
In semiconductor fabrication, a mask is
used to print a circuit design on a silicon substrate. This mask is protected from
environmental contamination by a protective film, called a pellicle, that is
crucial for manufacturing yield.
In this work, IBM has fabricated full
size silicon nitride pellicle membranes that meets the industry’s target of 90
percent EUV transparency, using conventional semiconductor and MEMS fabrication
methodologies. The differentiating feature of the IBM pellicle is its
transparency at the industry standard inspection wavelength (193nm), which
enables the use of existing infrastructure for through-pellicle mask defect
inspection. Complete technical details of the first mask inspection through the
IBM EUV pellicle will be discussed during the 2016 SPIE Advanced LithographyConference in San Jose, CA.
 |
| ASML
NXE-3300B EUV scanner at IBM
EUV Center of Excellence in Albany, NY |
The reported achievement is the culmination of several
years of effort at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, NY, and
part of IBM’s EUV Center of Excellence (COE) in Albany, NY – home to our ASML
NXE-3300B EUV scanner. The IBM EUV CoE became operational in 2013 and focuses
on driving a complete EUV solution that encompasses tooling, materials,
process, mask-use, and computational capability for integration into the
industry’s high volume semiconductor manufacturing solution.
 |
| Full
size EUV pellicle membrane |
Labels: 7nm, lithography, semiconductor
