A METHOD OF PATTERNING PHOTORESIST ON A WAFER USING A TRANSMISSION MASK WITH A CARBON LAYER

摘要

A photoresist layer (417) on a semiconductor wafer (419) is patterned using a mask (401) with an absorbing layer (107) that has been repaired by using an additional light-absorbing carbon layer (105) that collects ions that are used in the repair process. After the repair has been completed, the ions that are present in the carbon layer (105) are removed by removing the portion of the carbon layer (105) that is not covered by the absorbing layer (107). Thus, the absorbing layer (107), which contains the pattern that is to be exposed on the photoresist layer (417), also acts as a mask in the removal of the portion of the carbon layer (105) that contains the ions. Thereby the ions that are opaque at the particular wavelength being used are removed from the areas where light is intended to pass through the mask to the photoresist (417). The buffer (105) layer is made absorbing to avoid problems with reflections at interfaces thereof.