Direct measurement of carbon contamination topography on patterned EUV masks

In our previous work, various techniques were used to confirm the contamination deposits on the sidewall of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask absorbers [1-2]. In order to further understand the effects of contamination topography on mask absorbing features, direct measurements of contaminated features is needed. In this work, we investigated the contamination topography using cross-section transmission electron microscope (TEM) image analysis on four different masks. TEM specimens of contaminated features from silicon and ruthenium capped EUV masks were prepared using a focused ion beam (FIB). We conducted the contamination experiment with three different exposure sources including EUV, out-of-band, and electron induced processes. Thickness measurements from each contamination experiment were provided. Shadowing effect and geometric analysis on the contamination topography is also discussed.