Printability of EUVL mask defect detected by actinic blank inspection tool and 199-nm pattern inspection tool

The key challenge before EUVL is to make defect-free masks hence it is important to identify the root cause of defects, and it is also necessary to establish suitable critical mask defect size for the production of ULSI devices. Selete has been developing EUV mask infrastructures such as a full-field actinic blank inspection tool and 199nm wavelength patterned mask inspection tool in order to support blank/mask supplier in reducing blank/mask defects which impact on wafer printing. In this paper, we evaluate the printability of multilayer defects and of absorber defects exposed by a full-field scanner EUV1, using full-field actinic/non-actinic blank inspection tool and 199nm wavelength patterned mask inspection tool. And based on the results of native defect analysis of blank/mask, we ascertain that blank inspection with actinic is necessary for mask fabrication in order to reduce the risk of missing phase defects, which hardly can be detected by patterned mask inspection tool.