Performance results from the Zeiss/NaWoTec MeRit MG electron beam mask repair tool

With the ever decreasing feature sizes and increasing cost of current and future photolithographic masks the repair of these masks becomes a substantial factor of the total mask production cost. In a collaborative effort NaWoTec, Carl Zeiss Nano Technology Systems Division (NTS) and Carl Zeiss Semiconductor Metrology Systems Division (SMS) have built an electron beam based mask repair tool capable of processing a wide variety of mask types, such as quartz binary masks, phase shift masks, EUV masks, and e-beam projection stencil masks. In this paper, besides a brief overview of the tool platform, we will present the automated repair of clear and opaque defects on Cr and MoSi quartz masks. Emphasis will be put onto the resolution and the speed of the repair procedure and the high grade of automation and integration achievable in the repair of high-end photomasks. An outlook against the ITRS requirements and the extendibility of the presented solution to further technology nodes will be given in the summary.