Fundamental Study of Droplet Spray Characteristics in Photomask Cleaning for Advanced Lithography

The fundamentals of droplet-based cleaning of photomasks are investigated and performance regimes that enable the use of binary spray technologies in advanced mask cleaning are identified. Using phase Doppler anemometry techniques, the effect of key performance parameters such as liquid and gas flow rates and temperature, nozzle design, and surface distance on droplet size, velocity, and distributions were studied. The data are correlated to particle removal efficiency (PRE) and feature damage results obtained on advanced photomasks for 193-nm immersion lithography.