Radiant energy – Irradiation of objects or material – Irradiation of semiconductor devices
Patent
1995-12-29
1998-07-07
Berman, Jack I.
Radiant energy
Irradiation of objects or material
Irradiation of semiconductor devices
H01L 21268
Patent
active
057773424
ABSTRACT:
In microlithographic systems, adapted for economical production of microchips with exceptionally small critical dimensions without exposure of the chip to potentially damaging radiation, wherein a beam of light is focused to a spot in photoresist layer excite a photoactive molecule in the spot, the effective size of the excitation is made smaller than the size of the spot by providing a beam of light of wavelength adapted to quench the excitation of the excitable species, shaping this second beam into a pattern with a central intensity minimum, and overlapping this central minimum with the central intensity maximum of the focused spot, so that within the spot the intensity of quenching light increases with distance from the center of the spot, thereby preferentially quenching excitation in the peripheral parts of the spot, and thereby reducing the effective size of the excitation and thus improving the resolution of the system. Systems where many such spots are simultaneously projected onto a resist layer, and simultaneously narrowed by quenching allow images of great complexity to be transfered quickly to the photoresist layer.
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