Recent application results from the novel e-beam-based mask repair system MeRiT MG

With the continuing decrease of feature sizes in conjunction with both the enormous costs for current masks and projections for future generations the area of mask repair has often been highlighted. Clearly, a viable repair methodology going forward has the potential to significantly influence and reduce production costs for the complete mask set. Carl Zeiss SMS had, in a concerted development effort with other Zeiss daughter companies, succeeded to develop and deploy a novel mask repair tool capable of repairing specifically all types of advanced masks, such as quartz binary masks, phase shift masks, EUV masks and S-FIL imprint templates. In addition to the pure technical capability of the e-beam based approach a strong emphasis has been made towards the user friendliness and automation features of the repair process as such.

[1]  Alan R. Stivers,et al.  E-beam mask repair: fundamental capability and applications , 2004, SPIE Photomask Technology.