Electron beam fabrication of masks in amorphous metalchalcogenide bilayers

Abstract

Electron beam induced surface modifications have been employed in modifying chalcogenide/silver bilayers formed with As2Se3, GeSe2, Sb2S3 etc. to produce submicrometre and nanometre dimensional patterns which may eventually have potential applications in single stage processing of nanometer x-ray and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) masks for silicon chip fabrication. The x-ray masks with differing structures have been fabricated over a range of electron beam accelerating voltages and electron beam intensities. The use of copper as well as carbon as the soft x-ray source has been investigated. Characteristics of the transferred image have also been studied. Silver patterns, formed in bilayers on silicon wafers, with potential applications in fabrication of EUV masks, have been studied by scanning Auger microscopy. © 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd.