Radiation imagery chemistry: process – composition – or product th – Radiation modifying product or process of making – Radiation mask
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-15
2004-02-17
Huff, Mark F. (Department: 1756)
Radiation imagery chemistry: process, composition, or product th
Radiation modifying product or process of making
Radiation mask
C355S018000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06692878
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
The field of the invention relates to semiconductor manufacturing lithography technology and more specifically to mask features designed to improve critical dimension control.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The various conducting lines and other features found within a semiconductor chip are created by lithographic means. That is, light is passed through a mask and focused onto a semiconductor wafer surface coated with a resist. The mask contains opaque and transparent areas such that, for negative resists, opaque regions correspond to the desired features formed on the semiconductor wafer surface (such as transistor gates or metal interconnection lines). Alternatively, if a positive resist is used, the transparent regions correspond to the desired features.
The critical dimension of a semiconductor process is used to refer to one of the process's smallest achievable dimensions. For example, the smallest feature size formed in a direction parallel to the surface of the wafer. Currently, a horizontal critical dimension of leading edge semiconductor devices is 0.13-0.25 micron (&mgr;m). As the projection optics of today's leading edge exposure tools reduce the optical image from the mask by approximately 4:1, the critical dimension of today's leading edge masks is approximately 0.52-1.0 &mgr;m (4×0.13-0.25=0.52-1.0).
A problem with masks is the variation of the mask's critical dimension at the outer edge of a die pattern. That is, as shown in
FIG. 1
, a mask
100
typically has a central area
101
having the various features formed on the semiconductor die. This central area
101
is also referred to as a die pattern, an active area, an active device area or the like. The area outside the active device area, referred to as the inactive area
102
, is largely unused space. For the most part, the most meaningful features on the mask are those that help create the features on the silicon chip (which are within the active area
101
). Typically, alignment features
103
a-d
(used for mask alignment purposes) are the main features used within the inactive area
102
.
It has been observed that the smallest achievable feature size (i.e., a critical dimension) on the mask increases at the outer edge
104
of the active area
101
. For example,
FIG. 2
a
shows the variation
200
of a mask's Final Check Critical Dimension (FCCD) with the mask's radius. Toward the outer edge of the active area
201
(approximately 55000 &mgr;m from the mask's center in this example) there is a sharp increase in the critical dimension range from approximately 0.910-0.940 &mgr;m to 0.950-0.965 &mgr;m.
This lack of control usually affects features commonly referred to as metro cells. Metro cells
202
are a set of features used for the alignment of a lithographic stepper. As metro cells are usually placed near the outer edge of the active area
104
(referring briefly back to FIG.
1
), metro cells
202
tend to be more distorted than other features. Thus
FIG. 2
a
shows the critical dimension of the metro cells
202
within an undesired 0.950-0.965 &mgr;m critical dimension range.
FIG. 2
b
shows an SEM photograph of an inner feature edge
203
that is within a mask's active device area (
101
of
FIG. 1
) and sufficiently far from the active device area edge (
104
of FIG.
1
).
FIG. 2
c
shows an SEM photograph of a metro cell edge
204
from the same mask as that shown in
FIG. 2
b
. The loss of critical dimension control is seen by comparison of
FIG. 2
b
with
FIG. 2
c
. The metro cell's edge
204
, being substantially more sloped than the inner feature edge
203
, results in a larger metro cell
202
critical dimension.
The inability to keep the metro cell's critical dimension within a normal range (e.g., 0.910-0.940 &mgr;m) results in manufacturing inefficiencies. Specifically, the mask has to be manually or custom exposed in order to compensate for the distortion to the metro cell. This custom fitting procedure slows down the manufacturing process resulting in added expense (through wasted time). If the metro cell critical dimension could be manufactured within the same range as the features within the active area, the custom fitting procedure may be eliminated resulting in substantial savings to current manufacturing costs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An apparatus is described comprising a mask having an active device area and a moat. The moat substantially surrounds the mask active device area and has a width greater than a plasma specie diffusional length. A method is described comprising depositing a layer of resist on a mask substrate having transparent and opaque layers; and then exposing the resist layer to radiation. The radiation is patterned to produce features within an active device area. The radiation is also patterned to produce a moat substantially surrounding the active device area having a width greater than a plasma specie diffusional length.
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Chen Frederick
Farnsworth Jeff
Kamna Marilyn
Tsai Wilman
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