Metallic mirror coatings are a key part of intelligence gathering, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems (ISR). As collecting accurate and clear information is critical in these applications, coatings working in these applications must withstand extreme environments, including high humidity and corrosion for extended periods. Gold mirror coatings are a common choice, being chemically inert to be relatively unaffected by environmental conditions and benefiting from high reflectivity from 600nm to into the mid-IR. Aluminum has a lower overall reflectivity than gold but extends its high reflectivity band further into the UV than gold. Silver performs better than gold in the full visible range but suffers from weak environmental survivability performance. As such, silver requires a durable protective coating to withstand exposure to ambient and corrosive environments. Hence, these silver-based coatings must be protected by inert coatings without reduction of their spectral performance in the spectral region of interest. Besides spectral performances, these coatings must also meet other durability requirements according to military specification documents like MIL-F 48616, MIL-810G amongst a few. Amongst the harshest requirements are exposure to Salt Fog spray and extended heat and humidity. Low stress coatings are also desired to meet surface figure requirements for some of these optics. In this article, we provide an overview of performance of our protected silver coating, with reflectance > 95% from 0.45-20 um that can withstand exposure to salt fog spray for over 120 h. These coatings were also exposed for over 24 h of high humidity, temperature, and thermal cycling without any significant deterioration in performance.
As 248nm DUV lithography tools pursue resolution of smaller features, the transition towards higher numerical aperture optics in these tools is pushing the development of high-performance anti-reflection coatings on large-area, highly curved transmitting optics present in these systems. We present the results of one such effort to coat multi-layered Al2O3 and MgF2 antireflection coatings on substrates of planar, spherical, and aspherical geometries. The spectral, surface quality, and pulsed laser damage performance of these coatings are presented.
As Extreme Ultra Violet lithography (EUVL) is becoming adopted into manufacturing, there is an ongoing need to identify and improve the EUV mask multilayer properties that impact reflectivity. Key properties include the roughness and inter-diffusion depth at the Mo-Si interfaces. During mask usage, on exposure to EUV, the interfaces are impacted during thermal cycling, so interfacial stability is key. We report on the use of X-ray reflectivity (XRR) to probe the interfacial depth and roughness of Mo/Si multilayers deposited via secondary ion beam deposition (IBD). We confirm top-surface roughness by AFM. We measure minimal impact of the underlying substrate on top-surface roughness of Mo-Si multilayer stacks. Mo and Si single-layer roughness are shown to be primarily dependent on deposition angle; with minimal roughness at intermediate angles and significant deterioration beyond a deposition angle of about 60 degrees. We use this angular dependence to systematically vary the interfacial roughness and monitor the impact on the XRR measurement. We demonstrate that XRR, with attention to the Fourier Transform, may also be used to quantify the inter-diffusion depth at the Mo-Si interfaces. We measure inter-diffusion depths of 0.5 - 1.8nm. A simulated model is developed, incorporating both interfacial depth and roughness, and the experimental data are compared with this model. The model could be applied to quantify the impact on the interfaces of: beam energy and flux; incidence angles; gas species and pressure; interfacial treatments; thermal treatment; or mask usage.
For future nodes, TaN-based absorber layers on EUV mask-blanks, may need to be replaced with thinner layers of new material systems. Ni and Co based materials are promising material candidates owing to their high EUV absorption. Ion Beam Etching (IBE) is being explored as an option for patterning these metallic systems that are hard to etch by Reactive Ion Etch. In this work we expand our initial work on the IBE of Ni absorber films to include the role of etch beam energy and alternative etch-masks for both Ni and Co based films. We present experimental film level data such as etch uniformity, angular-dependent etch rates, and surface roughness. We extend the modeling of IBE of line-space patterns, to narrower line widths and various etch-mask materials vis-a-vis side wall angle and CD fidelity, both as a function of beam energy and angle of etch.
Development progress and roadmap, for high-reflective Mo/Si multilayers for EUV mask-blanks, are reviewed. We outline the state-of-the-art in low-defect-density secondary ion beam deposition (IBD), and ongoing hardware development for performance improvement and high-volume manufacturing. We further discuss extension of ion beam technology to later steps in the EUV mask manufacturing: deposition of highly-uniform 2.5 – 3nm Ru capping layers; and patterning of novel Ni absorber structures. IBD-deposited Ru films are demonstrated with uniformity of 0.7% 3σ over a 188mm diameter area. By x-ray reflection with Cu Kα radiation, we measure a film density of 12.4 g/cm3, and a roughness of less than 1.0nm. Deposition rates of ~ 1 – 7 nm/min are demonstrated, implying a capping layer deposition time of 20 seconds – 3 minutes. . For advanced absorber patterning, we discuss Argon ion beam etch (IBE) of Ni films. Ni and Ru IBE etch rates of ~ 8 – 80 nm/min are demonstrated, implying absorber etch times of ~ 30 seconds – 5 minutes. IBE Ni:Ru etch selectivity is 1:1 to 1.3:1, so Ru is not a ‘stopping layer’, etch depth must be controlled by time, and Ni uniformity is a requirement. IBE Ni:Photoresist etch selectivity is 0.8:1 to 1.6:1. We simulate the IBE absorber pattern definition for mask features of half-pitch 96nm (24nm at wafer level). Ion beam incidence angle can be optimized to maintain critical dimension within 6% of the pre-etch value.
KEYWORDS: Bandpass filters, Coating, Optical filters, Spectral resolution, Sputter deposition, Planets, Linear filtering, Electronic filtering, Ion beams, Control systems
Ion Beam Sputtering (IBS) offers a deposition process yielding optical thin films with stable optical parameters, near bulk density, and ppm level optical loss. Recently higher throughput systems with higher deposition rate and larger substrate fixtures have been developed. The higher deposition rates make accurate layer control essential. This is most readily achieved by using an optical monitoring system (OMS).
Multiple optical bandpass, edge filters and notch filters have been deposited in a high throughput IBS system with four 333mm diameter planetary using both a single wavelength (SWLOMS) as well as a broadband OMS (BBOMS). A wavelength repeatability of less than 0.1% for five subsequent short wave pass filters is demonstrated. Results for a multi notch filter coated using the BBOMS are also presented. A control strategy utilizing a mix of a broadband and a single wavelength model was used successfully in the deposition.
Spectral performance of multiple bandpass filters using turning point control is presented. A 2D mapping of a 15nm FWHM bandpass filter centered at 830nm shows a +/-0.05% variation in the center wavelength across the central 180mm diameter and a +/-0.35nm variation in the FWHM to the edge of the wafer. A variation of the standard turning point monitoring that enables control of filters with narrower bandwidth than the spectral resolution of the OMS system has been developed. A 0.8nm FWHM bandpass filter centered at 532nm controlled using a BBOMS with a ~1.5nm FWHM spectral resolution of the spectrometer is demonstrated.
In this work we report on the damage threshold of ion beam deposited oxide films designed for high peak power short pulse laser systems. Single layers of ZrO2, SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2, and Ta2O5 and multilayers of Al2O
3/TiO2, SiO2/Ta2O5, and SiO2/ZrO2 were grown on polished borosilicate glass substrates using ion beam sputter deposition. Deposition conditions were optimized to yield fully oxidized films as determined from x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Damage threshold testing was performed using an amplified Ti:Sapphire laser producing a train of 120 picosecond pulses at a wavelength of 800 nm. The laser output was focused with a lens to generate fluences ranging from 0.1 to 24 J/cm2. The highest damage threshold of 15.4 J/cm2 was measured for a single layer film of SiO2. The damage threshold of high reflectance and anti-reflection multilayer coatings fabricated for 800 nm applications was evaluated using the same procedure as for the single layer films. Highest damage thresholds of 2.5 and 3.5 J/cm2 were measured for a 6-pair ZrO2/SiO2 high reflectance coating and a 5 layer anti-reflection coating of the same materials.
Silicon nanocrystals have been prepared in thermally oxidized hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and annealed silicon-rich oxynitride (SRON) films with [O/Si]=0.17 [N/Si]=0.07, in the temperature range 400-800°C and 850-1150°C respectively. Glancing Angle X-ray Diffraction (GAXRD) measurements show the presence of silicon nanocrystals embedded in silicon oxide films. Warren-Averbach Analysis of GAXRD data indicates the presence of ~9 nm silicon crystallites in a-Si:H films oxidized at 800°C. Room temperature photo-luminescence (PL) was observed from silicon nanocrystals embedded in oxidized a-Si:H films. Modeling the PL data indicates the presence of 6 nm silicon nanocrystals. This discrepancy is attributed to the columnar growth of silicon nanocrystals in thermally oxidized a-Si:H films. Silicon nanocrystals were not formed by thermal oxidation of SRON films under similar reaction conditions. However, silicon nanocrystals could be fabricated by annealing SRON films for 4 h in vacuum over the temperature range 850-1150°C. Silicon crystallite sizes remained constant (~4 nm) for films annealed below 1050°C and increased to 9 nm for films annealed at 1150°C. The presence of nitrogen played an important role in the silicon nanocrystal precipitation in SRON films. While the nanocrystal formation in a-Si:H films was due to oxidation and crystallization progressing simultaneously in the films, nanocrystal formation in SRON films appears to be due to the high temperature precipitation of excess silicon in the film.
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