Paper
12 April 2013 Mask side wall clamping
G. J. P. Naaijkens, P. C. J. N. Rosielle, M. Steinbuch
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Current state-of-the-art optical lithography scanners using 193nm wavelength lasers and numerical apertures of 1.35 have reached fundamental printing limits. Yet, consumer demands and device trends continue to drive smaller feature sizes, and most IC manufacturers have already navigated beyond the lithographic printing limits by turning to double patterning techniques.1 Requiring an extra lithography step for these techniques, it is essential to keep costs down by e.g. increasing wafer throughput. Currently, leading edge immersion scanners consistently produce over 190 wafers per hour (wph). However, to keep decreasing the cost per transistor, higher throughputs of 250 wph are key targets for the year 20132. Amongst others, higher throughput can be acquired by increasing acceleration of the positioning stages. One of the constraining technologies is the current mask or reticle clamping concept due to its friction based acceleration. While current reticle accelerations amount to 150 m/s2, some research3 has already been performed to reticle stage accelerations of 400 m/s2. In this paper, a novel reticle clamping concept is presented. The concept is shown to be suitable for accelerations larger than 400 m/s2 entirely eliminating reticle slip, whilst meeting specifications for clamping induced error with a pattern deformation of < 0.12 nm on wafer stage level (WS) and comprising high clamp stiffness.
© (2013) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
G. J. P. Naaijkens, P. C. J. N. Rosielle, and M. Steinbuch "Mask side wall clamping", Proc. SPIE 8683, Optical Microlithography XXVI, 86832I (12 April 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2011458
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CITATIONS
Cited by 2 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Reticles

Semiconducting wafers

Finite element methods

Photomasks

Actuators

Head

193nm lithography

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