The development and simulation of piezoelectric surface acoustic wave devices for EUV mask particle removal

TL;DRAbstract

Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) is a critical semiconductor fabrication process which uses 13.5 nanometer wavelength light reflected from a mask to print features on various wafers used for IC fabrication. An extensive amount of research is currently underway to make EUVL prevalent in efforts to allow for efficient sub-22 nm feature size fabrication. A number of challenges must be overcome before EUVL usage becomes feasible in terms of cost, wafer output, reliability, and throughput. One notable challenge in EUVL is the removal of mask contamination. EUV masks are required to be free of contamination to ensure precise feature printing. Particles on the order of 20-30 nanometers will disturb the reflectivity of the mask therefore yielding a faulty pattern on the subject wafer. A proposed, non-destructive solution, is the use of high frequency surface acoustic waves for particle removal. Surface acoustic waves generated by interdigitated electrodes on piezoelectric surfaces provid

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