Feb. 11, 2008 – SEMATECH says it has demonstrated defect density of 0.04/cm2 for EUV mask blanks, with a total of 8 defects combined from substrate and multilayer, surpassing the consortium’s published commercial EUV mask blank roadmap target for the end of 2007.
The achievement, reported at SEMATECH’s Mask Blank Development Center within facilities at the U. of Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE), involved a combination of multilayer deposition, substrate cleaning, improved substrates from suppliers, and state-of-the-art mask blank defect inspection capability, SEMATECH noted in a statement. Partner Lasertec (Japan) provided inspection capability to find defects as small as 53nm on the mask blanks, “which was instrumental in providing cycles of learning to reduce defects,” the group noted. Other key partners in the work were Veeco Instruments and glass material suppliers, noted Chan-Uk Jeon, SEMATECH MBDC program manager.
“We and our commercial partners are committed to keeping this vital effort on track,” he stated.