At TNO an extensive EUV optics life time program has been running for over 15 years together with our partners ASML and Carl Zeiss. This has contributed to the upcoming introduction of EUV High Volume Manufacturing (HVM). To further help the industry with the introduction of EUV, TNO has worked on extending their facilities with a number of reticle and pellicle research infrastructure facilities. In this paper we will show some of the facilities that are available at TNO and shortly introduce their capabilities. Recently we have opened our EBL2 facility, which is an EUV Beam Line (EBL2) meant for studying the effects of high power EUV illumination on optics, reticles and pellicles up to the power roadmap of 500 W at intermediate Focus (IF). This facility is open to users from all over the world and is beneficial for the industry in helping developing alternative capping layers and contamination control strategies for optics lifetime, new absorber materials, pellicles and resists. The EBL2 system has seen first light in December 2016 and is now in the final stage of acceptance testing and qualification. It is expected that the system will be fully operational in the third quarter of 2017, and available for users. It is possible to transfer reticles to and from the EBL2 by means of the reticle handler using the dual pod interface. This secures backside cleanliness to NXE standards and thus enables wafer printing on a NXE tool in a later stage after the exposures and inspection at EBL2. Besides EBL2, a high performance and ultra-clean reticle handler is available at TNO. This handler incorporates our particle scanner Rapid Nano 4 for front side inspection of reticle blanks with a detection limit down to 20 nm particles. Attached to the handler is also an Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) inspection tool for back-side reticle or pellicle inspection with a resolution down to 1 micron.
The introduction of ever higher source powers in EUV systems causes increased risks for contamination and degradation
of EUV masks and pellicles. Appropriate testing can help to inventory and mitigate these risks. To this end, we propose
EBL2: a laboratory EUV exposure system capable of operating at high EUV powers and intensities, and capable of
exposing and analyzing EUV masks. The proposed system architecture is similar to the EBL system which has been
operated jointly by TNO and Carl Zeiss SMT since 2005. EBL2 contains an EUV Beam Line, in which samples can be
exposed to EUV irradiation in a controlled environment. Attached to this Beam Line is an XPS system, which can be
reached from the Beam Line via an in-vacuum transfer system. This enables surface analysis of exposed masks without
breaking vacuum. Automated handling with dual pods is foreseen so that exposed EUV masks will still be usable in
EUV lithography tools to assess the imaging impact of the exposure. Compared to the existing system, large
improvements in EUV power, intensity, reliability, and flexibility are proposed. Also, in-situ measurements by e.g.
ellipsometry is foreseen for real time monitoring of the sample condition. The system shall be equipped with additional
ports for EUVR or other analysis tools. This unique facility will be open for external customers and other research
groups.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.