Application of EB repair for nanoimprint lithography template

Recently, much attention has been paid on nanoimprint lithography (NIL) because of its capability for fabricating device at a low cost without multiple patterning. It is considered as a candidate for next generation lithography technology. NIL is one to one lithography and contact transfer technique using template. Therefore, the lithography performance depends greatly on the quality of the template pattern. And there are some challenges to be solved for defect repair of template because pattern size of template is as same as that of wafer. In order to realize the defect repair of template using electron beam (EB) repair tools, it is necessary to control the EB irradiated area and dose amount of EB repair process more accurately. By optimizing these conditions, EB repair process for template has been improved. In this paper, we evaluated etching repair of a master template and the imprinting to replica. Programmed missing defects on master template were repaired by changing parameters of EB repair tool. It was confirmed that the relationship of critical dimension (CD) and depth of etching repair process for master template and the influence on replica imprinting. As a result, the repair process for master template with hole pattern enables the corresponding CD error of the replica template to be less than ±10% of the target CD.