Mask manufacturing contribution on 248-nm and 193-nm lithography performances

In this study, we focus on mask manufacturing contribution on 248nm & 193nm lithography performances. The masks are manufactured at DPI using both E-beam/Laser writing technologies (e-beam/laser) and two etching processes (Wet/Dry). Masks are optimized for 150nm node at wafer scale, neither RET nor tuning are used, despite of this, we obtain excellent and unexpected results for inferior nodes which highlight the robustness of the manufacturing mask processes being used.