Photomask and method of manufacturing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9417518-B2
Application number	US-201414217976-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 18, 2014
Priority date	Jul 3, 2013
Publication date	Aug 16, 2016
Grant date	Aug 16, 2016

Abstract

A photomask includes a transparent substrate, a mask pattern formed on the substrate, and a protective layer pattern covering side walls of the mask pattern, wherein a top of the protective layer pattern is exposed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A photomask, comprising:
a transparent substrate;
a mask pattern formed on the substrate, wherein the mask pattern includes a first film including a first material and a second film including a second material different from the first material, the first film being on the substrate and the second film being on the first film; and
a protective layer pattern covering side walls of the mask pattern,
wherein a top of the protective layer pattern and a top of the mask pattern are positioned on a same plane and are exposed.

2. The photomask as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the protective layer pattern includes a first area and a second area,
the first area is closer to the transparent substrate than the second area, and
a width of the first area is larger than a width of second area, the width of the first area and the width of the second area being measured in a direction parallel to the transparent substrate and perpendicular to a side surface of the mask pattern.

3. The photomask as claimed in claim 2 , wherein:
the first film of the mask pattern includes a third area and the second film of the mask pattern has a fourth area,
the first area of the protective layer pattern is on side walls of the third area of the mask pattern and the second area of the protective layer pattern is on side walls of the fourth area of the mask pattern, and
a sum of widths of the first and third areas is the same as a sum of widths of the second and fourth areas.

4. The photomask as claimed in claim 2 , wherein:
the protective layer pattern includes a first surface contacting the mask pattern and a second surface exposed to the outside, and
the second surface is substantially vertical to the transparent substrate.

5. The photomask as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the mask pattern includes a plurality of films formed by alternately laminating additional films including the first material and additional films including the second material.

6. The photomask as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the first material includes at least one of Mo and Ru and the second material includes Si.

7. The photomask as claimed in claim 1 , wherein an etching rate of the protective layer pattern to at least one of H 2 SO 4 and NH 4 OH is lower than that of the mask pattern.

8. A photomask, comprising:
a transparent substrate;
a mask pattern formed on the substrate; and
a protective layer pattern covering side walls of the mask pattern,
wherein a top of the protective layer pattern is exposed,
wherein:
the mask pattern includes Mo, and
the protective layer pattern includes at least one of Si, Cr, Ta, Zr, chromium oxide (CrO x ), chromium nitride (CrN x ), zirconium oxide (ZrO x ), tantalum oxide (TaO x ), and tantalum nitride (TaN x ).

9. The photomask as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the protective layer pattern being formed by depositing a protective layer on the mask pattern through an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process and patterning the protective layer.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Oh Jong-Keun
• Ko Hyung-Ho
• Kim Byung-Gook
• Choi Jae-Hyuck
• Choi Jun-Youl

Classifications

• G03F1/54

  Absorbers, e.g. of opaque materials · CPC title

• G03F1/48 Primary

  Protective coatings · CPC title

• G03F1/80

  Etching · CPC title

• G03F1/76

  Patterning of masks by imaging · CPC title

• G03F1/20

  Masks or mask blanks for imaging by charged particle beam [CPB] radiation, e.g. by electron beam; Preparation thereof · CPC title