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Nanolithography with coherent extreme ultraviolet light

This article has been downloaded from IOPscience. Please scroll down to see the full text article. 2006 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 39 R171 (http://iopscience.iop.org/0022-3727/39/10/R01) View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more

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INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS PUBLISHING J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 39 (2006) R171R188

JOURNAL OF PHYSICS D: APPLIED PHYSICS doi:10.1088/0022-3727/39/10/R01

TOPICAL REVIEW

Nanolithography with coherent extreme ultraviolet light

Harun H Solak
Laboratory for Micro and Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland E-mail: harun.solak@psi.ch

Received 31 March 2005 Published 5 May 2006 Online at stacks.iop.org/JPhysD/39/R171 Abstract Extreme ultraviolet interference lithography (EUV-IL) is a newly developed technique for the production of periodic nano-structures with resolution below 20 nm. The technique is based on coherent radiation that is obtained from undulators at synchrotron radiation laboratories. The high resolution is afforded by small wavelength and practical absence of the proximity effect at this energy. The throughput of this parallel exposing method is much higher than that of the serial electron-beam lithography. Interference schemes based on both reection (mirrors) and diffraction (gratings) optics have been realized. Both one-dimensional and two-dimensional patterns such as arrays of dots have been achieved. Achromatic interference schemes have been developed to make efcient use of the beam power available from the wideband sources in the extreme ultraviolet region. EUV-IL is used in a growing number of applications; examples include fabrication of self-assembly templates, magnetic nanodot arrays and nano-optical components. (Some gures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version) 1. Introduction
The microelectronics industry has made tremendous advances in recent decades, which is largely due to its ability to print circuit elements through the lithography process, with ever decreasing dimensions and increasing density. The resulting integrated circuits offer more functionality at higher speeds and lower cost. Researchers in other elds have also started making use of the micro- and nano-structuring approach, taking advantage of the established technological base. In optics, photonic bandgap crystals, sub-wavelength metal and dielectric structures, and nano-structured optical antennas are active areas of research with great potential for applications. In the life sciences, patterned surfaces are used in DNA and protein chips, bio-sensors, cell-growth and tissue-engineering applications. Lithographically produced arrays of magnetic nano-dots are considered for future data storage media. Microand nano-mechanical systems, ranging from accelorometers and ink-jet printer heads to micro-mirror arrays are now in mass production. The above examples are by no means
0022-3727/06/100171+18$30.00 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd

a complete list of the vast array of new developments that nd their technological base in the lithographic production approach. Within the last decade a new lithographic technique called extreme ultraviolet interference lithography (EUV-IL) has emerged, aiding research and development efforts in many areas that require nanometre-scale periodic structures. In this paper, we review this new technique and give examples of its initial application in a number of elds. Lithography is a surface patterning technology. It usually starts with the coating of the substrate with a sacricial lm (photoresist) that undergoes a certain chemical change when it is exposed to some form of radiation. Photoresist lms are usually based on polymers. The chemical changes that occur in the photoresist lm upon irradiation cause a dramatic change in the solubility of the lm in a certain developer solution. The desired pattern is recorded in the irradiation step, which can be realized with different forms of radiation including light in the visible and UV regions, x-rays, extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) radiation and electron or ion beams. After development of the exposed lm, a pattern is obtained consisting of areas R171

Printed in the UK

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where the photoresist is removed and where it stays. The tone of the photoresist, i.e either positive or negative, determines whether it is removed from the exposed or unexposed areas. The structured photoresist on the substrate is used as a mask in a subsequent etching or deposition process to transfer the pattern into a functional layer, e.g. the interconnect wires in an electronic circuit. The remaining photoresist lm is eventually removed. In the fabrication of a typical electronic device, the lithography step is repeated tens of times to create the various required layers. The microelectronics industry has been able to continuously improve the resolution of the lithographic process, enabling it to print smaller and denser circuit elements as predicted by the famous Moores law [1]. This trend requires advances in all components of the process, which includes the development of exposure tools, photoresist materials and pattern transfer processes. Photolithography has been the method of choice for lithographic exposures in volumeproduction where a projection camera is used to form a demagnied image of a mask pattern on the substrate. The size of the smallest features that can be printed by such an optical system, i.e. the resolution, is given by the relation d = k1 , NA (1)

where k1 is a constant, is the wavelength and NA is the numerical aperture of the projection camera. Over the years the wavelength used in production has shifted from the visible into the deep UV region to be able to provide higher resolution. Currently lasers operating at 193 nm wavelength are used in production. The technology at this wavelength is expected to enable fabrication down to the 45 nm resolution node [2]. Immersion lithography, where a high refractive index liquid is introduced between the last optical element of the camera and the substrate, is currently being developed to enable this extension [3]. The impending resolution limit in optical lithography as predicted by equation (1) has prompted intense research and development efforts for the development of the so-called next generation lithography technology to be used in production. A number of alternatives have been considered over the years including proximity xray, projection EUV, projection e-beam and ion-beam and nanoimprint lithography (NIL) techniques. While projection photolithography has been the main production technology for the semiconductor industry, holographic or interference lithography (IL) has attracted continuous interest in special applications and in research and development laboratories [4]. It is based on the recording of interference fringes formed by mutually coherent light beams. In the simplest and most basic case the inference of two plane waves creates a standing wave pattern with the period p which is given by , (2) p= 2 sin where is equal to half of the angle between the propagation directions of the two beams. The resolution for dense patterns, such as an array of approximately equal-width lines and spaces, is usually given in terms of the half pitch of the pattern. By this denition the ultimate resolution achievable in IL is equal to one quarter of the wavelength. One of the main advantages of R172

IL is its ability to provide the ultimate limit in resolution that is possible at a certain wavelength without the need for expensive and difcult projection optics. The depth of focus is practically unlimited in most IL schemes. Very large areas measuring in square meters can be exposed with periodic patterns with IL. Lasers are most commonly used as light sources in IL due to the highly coherent beams that they provide. Patterns with a period down to 100 nm have been recorded with ArF laser sources that operate at 193 nm wavelength [5]. As in projection lithography, the resolution in IL can be improved by going to a smaller effective wavelength with the use of an immersion liquid. This method has been applied to record 64 nm period gratings [6]. In general, the patterns achievable in IL are periodic due to the very nature of the formation of interference fringes by light waves. However, this is not as restrictive as it may rst sound because of the different waveforms and combinations of beams that can be employed. Curved or variable spacing gratings can be formed by the interference of non-planar wavefronts. For example, Fresnel Zone Plates (FZP) which are concentric circular gratings structures with the period depending on the radius can be obtained by the interference of two spherical beams, or a spherical and a parallel beam [7]. Two or even three-dimensional patterns are possible by interfering multiple beams (more than two) or by making multiple exposures with two beams. For example, square or hexagonal arrays can be recorded by interfering four and three beams, respectively. Three-dimensional photonic crystals have been produced with multiple beam interference [8]. Recently, imaging IL that has the capability to create arbitrary patterns [9] has been demonstrated. Interference patterns can be obtained through a variety of optical methods. In fact, image formation in a projection optical system, such as a microscope or a lithography camera can be considered as an interference effect [10]. Therefore, as in any phenomenon where interference of waves is involved, the coherence (or partial coherence) of the light beam is an important factor in the formation of an optical image. Even though interference and coherence are key concepts in the formation of images in both projection and IL, there is a main difference in that there is no one-to-one correspondence between an object and an image in IL. This difference can sometimes be rather subtle. For example, when the socalled self-imaging property (or the Talbot effect) is used to record the self-images of a grating, there is no one-toone correspondence between the points on the image and the grating, which can be considered to be the object. In this case, the role of the object is to generate a number of diffracted beams which interfere at certain planes away from the grating to form the self-images. We will come back to this method in a later section of this paper. In general, interference methods require higher coherence. The depth of eld of interference patterns depends on the used technique. For two interfering plane waves the fringe pattern is space invariant whereas the self-images of a grating are formed periodically in a limited range along the optical axis. However, notwithstanding the limited range of Talbot images, one of the great advantages of IL is the large depth of focus compared with projection or proximity techniques. Periodic structures that can be produced with IL are required in many areas of science and technology. Diffraction

Topical Review

gratings and lenses, x-ray optics, sub-wavelength optical elements such as lters, beam-splitters and polarizers, sensors and display devices, patterned magnetic media for data storage are some examples where periodic structures are used. Directed self-assembly on periodically nanostructured templates has been demonstrated in a number of different systems, including colloidal particles [22] and blockcopolymer (BC) domains [12]. We can expect these uses to grow signicantly as novel properties of materials with nanometre-scale dimensions are exploited in new applications. The applications cited above share the somewhat conicting requirements of patterning with high resolution and low cost. The photolithography techniques used by the microelectronics industry are not likely to answer these challenges simultaneously. IL at short wavelengths, i.e. in the EUV or soft x-ray region, appears as a potential solution to this fabrication challenge. In the last decade EUV-IL facilities have been set up at several synchrotron facilities. The successful results obtained to date point to the feasibility of obtaining high resolution structures with useful throughput using IL in this spectral region. NIL, which in principle has the potential for inexpensive fabrication of high-resolution structures, is a one-to-one replication method with no demagnication possibility [13]. Therefore NIL itself requires high-resolution fabrication capability for the production of the masters needed in imprinting. In the sections below we rst review various approaches to nanolithography using coherent EUV light and give examples from the growing number of applications.

2.1. Production of coherent x-ray beams The condition for two light beams coming together to form a stable interference pattern is for the two beams to be mutually coherent. The stability of the interference pattern should be considered over the relevant observation period, which in lithography corresponds to the time required to record the image in a photoresist lm. Mutual coherence is a measure of the correlation of the oscillations of the electromagnetic elds of the two beams. If this correlation is perfect the elds are added in amplitude leading to familiar interference patterns. If the correlation is absent, the observed intensity is simply found as the addition of the intensities of the two beams, with no interference effect. If the correlation is present but not perfect then interference fringes are obtained with reduced modulation. The modulation in the image or the fringe visibility is given by the mutual coherence factor through the relation = Imax Imin , Imax + Imin (3)

2. Formation and recording of x-ray interference patterns

There are many different ways of forming and recording interference fringes with light waves. Various IL schemes have been realized using the very well-developed light sources and optics in the visible and UV regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. In particular, the high spatial and temporal coherence of laser beams combined with the high power available from these sources have been essential in this development. Interference schemes that require only moderate levels of spatial or temporal coherence have also been developed for use at wavelengths where lasers with only limited coherence levels are available, for example, for use with some excimer laser lines in the UV region [5, 14]. While the sources and optics in the EUV range face more restrictions, there has been signicant progress in recent years on both fronts. Modern synchrotrons can now provide fully coherent radiation up to a photon energy of about 100 eV [15]. The power output from laser and discharge produced plasma sources has multiplied to levels that can satisfy the requirements of high-volume EUV lithography tools [16]. Multilayer coated reective EUV optics has been demonstrated with unprecedented gure and roughness values that satisfy the requirements for EUV lithography [17]. Diffraction optics in the form of FZP has been made with the resolution going down to 15 nm [18]. All these developments can be used in various EUV-IL schemes for high-resolution structuring with all the associated advantages of IL such as large areas, high throughput and large depth of eld. In the sections below we will review the recent development of the EUV-IL techniques.

where Imax and Imin refer to the maximum and minimum of the intensity fringes. A rigorous discussion of coherence is beyond the scope of this review. The reader is referred to standard textbooks for a detailed discussion [19, 20]. In IL, the interfering beams are usually obtained from a single light source through either wavefront division or amplitude division methods or a combination of the two. The mutual coherence of the interfering beams depends on the way they are obtained from the source and the properties of the source itself. In this section we concentrate on the properties of the EUV beam collected from the source and delivered to the interferometer. The two important properties of the beam are its spatial and temporal coherence. Spatial coherence refers to the mutual coherence between the elds at two points on the wavefront of the beam. Therefore this type of coherence is important when the beams extracted from two separate points on the source beam are brought together to interfere. Temporal coherence on the other hand refers to the mutual coherence between the eld at a certain point in space and the eld at the same point with a certain time lag. Temporal coherence is important when two interfering beams are extracted from the same point on the source beam, with the introduction of a certain time delay. Lasers operating in the visible and UV regions of the spectrum usually possess high degrees of both spatial and temporal coherence. In the EUV region, synchrotrons and plasmas are currently the only sources that are powerful enough to be used in lithography. Due to favourable coherence properties, to date, all the reported EUV-IL experiments have been performed on synchrotron sources. EUV-IL setups at synchrotrons use radiation from undulators. An undulator is a device composed of a periodic linear array of dipole magnets that creates a magnetic eld with alternating eld direction along the length of the array. As electrons pass through such a device they are forced to undulate in the periodic magnetic eld. This accelerated motion of the charges with relativistic speed produces a directional photon beam that travels along the same direction as the electron beam. The spectrum of the emitted radiation shows many R173

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Figure 1. Optical layout of the XIL beamline at the Swiss Light Source. The source is a 42 period undulator. The beam is focused after ve reections onto a pinhole that functions as a spatial-lter. The beam expands to a symmetric spot size of about 4 mm diameter (FWHM) by the time it reaches the interferometer chamber.

peaks (harmonics) which are caused by interference effects due to the periodic variation of the magnetic eld. In lithography experiments normally all these peaks but one are eliminated by optical elements that condition and shape the beam before it reaches the interferometer. The spatial coherence of undulator radiation has attracted interest in x-ray applications that require this type of coherence, such as x-ray holography, coherent diffraction and microscopy [21]. The electrons that pass through the periodic magnetic eld of the undulator emit light independently, unlike the stimulated emission of radiation that takes place in a laser medium. Therefore an undulator can be considered an essentially incoherent source which means that the coherence properties of the emitted beam are controlled by the lateral size of the source and the angular divergence of the emitted beam. In order for an undulator beam to be fully coherent its divergence x and the source size x have to satisfy the relation [22] x x << . (4) 2 A major criterion in the design of modern synchrotrons is to reduce the value of the expression on the left-hand side of this relation by minimizing both the size of the electron beam and the lateral motion of the electrons which contributes to the divergence of the emitted beam. For example the Swiss Light Source is designed to be fully coherent up to a photon energy of about 100 eV in both horizontal and vertical directions. Therefore for EUV-IL schemes that normally operate at lower energies we essentially have a fully spatially coherent beam at such a facility. The temporal coherence length, lc , of the undulator beam is related to its spectral width by the relation lc = 2 . (5)

As an example, for an undulator beam with wavelength = 13 nm and bandwidth / = 3% the longitudinal coherence length is only 0.43 m. This length can be extended by R174

reducing the spectral width with the use of a monochromator. However this comes at a proportional cost in lost ux. Even though with some moderate monochromatization the coherence length can be multiplied by a factor of about 100, it will still stay far below the corresponding number for lasers. Therefore interferometers that require only spatial coherence and very limited temporal coherence should be considered for the efcient use of undulator power. In the following sections we give examples of interferometers with differing levels of coherence requirement. The beam from the undulator source is delivered to the interferometer by a series of optical elements that form a so-called beamline. The beamline is designed to provide a beam with the required coherence, size, shape, uniformity and spectrum. The layout of the EUV-IL beamline at the Swiss Light Source is shown in gure 1. This beamline was added as a branch onto an existing spectroscopy beamline [23]. Therefore the optical layout represents a particular solution which is not necessarily the optimum one for an EUV-IL beamline that is built from scratch. The elements up to the switching mirror in gure 1 are shared with the spectroscopy branch. The beam is diverted into the EUV-IL branch when the switching mirror is inserted into the beam. The source of the beamline is a 42 period undulator which consists of two independently controlled sections. The energy of the photon beam is selected by tuning the undulator to the desired energy. The beam coming from the undulator is collimated by the rst mirror which also removes the high energy components above a photon energy of about 800 eV. The plane grating monochromator that follows is used to select a smaller bandwidth around the desired energy. It is possible to use the specularly reected light from the monochromator grating rather than the diffracted (dispersed) light in which case the grating can be considered a plane mirror. The two toroidal shaped mirrors that follow focus the beam onto a pinhole which is used as a spatial lter. The spatially ltering pinhole has a dual function in this setup. First, it forms a secondary source with a well-dened size for the interferometer, thus guaranteeing a certain level of

Topical Review

coherence determined by the pinhole diameter, wavelength and the distance to the interferometer. The coherence of the beam in the interferometer plane can be calculated through the van CittertZernike theorem ( [20], p 574). However this relation is valid for an incoherently illuminated pinhole which is not strictly true for this beamline because of the nite numerical aperture of the focusing optics and the limited divergence of the undulator beam itself. A full treatment of this problem requires the propagation of the mutual coherence function through the optical system. Nevertheless, the incoherently illuminated pinhole assumption can be used to obtain a lower limit for the spatial coherence of the light incident on the interferometer. The pinhole as a secondary source provides an additional guarantee for the coherence. Two factors that can effectively destroy the coherence of the source are vibrations of the reection optics and possible instabilities in the position of the electron beam itself. Both effects would lead to an effective source size that is bigger than the ideal case if the time constants of the relevant motions are shorter than the typical recording time of an interference image. The presence of the pinhole largely eliminates these concerns as a shift of the beam position would simply lead to the loss of intensity rather than coherence, assuming that the lateral position of the pinhole remains stationary. Fluctuations in beam intensity can easily be compensated by adjusting the exposure time whereas there is no such cure for the loss of coherence. The second function of the pinhole is to ensure the uniformity of beam intensity at the interferometer which is a critical requirement for lithography. At this beamline the monochromator is normally used in the specular reection (0th order) mode in which the mean wavelength and the spectral width are controlled by the source (undulator) settings and the ltering due to the reection of the beam from the mirror surfaces. The angle of incidence on the switching mirror is particularly large, which practically eliminates all the radiation above a photon energy of 150 eV. Therefore, at the typical operation energy of 92 eV, which is obtained at the rst harmonic of the undulator, all the higher harmonics including the second order are eliminated by this mirror. Low energy radiation which is expected to have much lower intensity than the main undulator peak is further reduced by the pinhole and the subsequent divergence of longer wavelengths. Long wavelengths are focused to a much larger spot than the pinhole and the part of the beam that does go through the pinhole diverges much faster than the main EUV beam. A large exposure chamber is installed at the end of the beamline (gure 2). Various interferometers can be implemented and wafers up to a diameter of 200 mm can be exposed in this chamber. 2.2. Interference with reection optics. Mirrors are often used to split and recombine beams in IL with visible or UV light. In particular beam splitters based on partial reection and transmission are the basis of many interferometers such as Michelson and MachZehnder types [20]. Soft x-rays are reected either through total external reection at grazing incidence or by resonance multilayer coatings. Beam-splitters based on both types of reective surfaces have been realized by depositing reective coatings

Figure 2. The EUV-IL interferometer chamber at the SLS. The chamber located in a cleanroom environment sits on an optics table to suppress vibrations transmitted from the oor. The system is designed to expose wafers up to 200 mm in diameter.

on transparent membranes [24]. Therefore the types of reection optics required to build soft x-ray interferometers are available. However the extremely high requirements on mirror surface quality and the limited coherence of the available soft x-ray sources complicate the implementation of such interferometers, which have not been built yet for lithography purposes. The Lloyds mirror interferometer (LMI) schematically shown in gure 3(a) is based on a single plane mirror. A part of the incident beam is reected by this mirror which interferes with the un-reected part of the beam to form interference fringes. Tatchyn et al [25] used undulator light which was monochromatized by a transmission grating to illuminate such an interferometer. Their lithographic results were limited by temporal coherence and available ux. More recently, we have used the same scheme at the Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC) to produce linear grating patterns with periods as small as 38 nm (gure 4) [26]. The setup used at SRC is schematically shown in gure 3(b) [27]. The slit is illuminated by an undulator beam which has been monochromatized and focused in the vertical direction. A 45 multilayer mirror diverts the light up, towards the interferometer. A 0.1 m thick SiN membrane separates the high vacuum of the exposure chamber from the ultrahigh vacuum of the beamline. An Au-coated glass mirror is positioned to intercept a part of the beam. A photoresist coated wafer is placed at the downstream end of the mirror to record the interference fringes. The mirror and the wafer are mounted on the same support plate and placed in contact to minimize the relative mechanical vibrations between the two that can wash out the fringe pattern. The orientation of the mirror is chosen to be parallel to the exit slit. The period of the fringe pattern produced by this interferometer is determined by the angle of incidence on the mirror and the wavelength through equation (2). Therefore the fringe period in this interferometer can easily be tuned to a desired value by varying either one or both of these parameters. The multilayer mirror and the membrane window in gure 3(b) are not essential parts of the interferometer and were used only for practical reasons. In fact, it would be better not to have any elements between the slit and the Lloyds R175

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Figure 3. (a) The principle of the LMI. The direct beam from the source S and the reected beam which appears to originate from the virtual source S interfere to form an interference pattern. (b) Main components of the LMI setup at the SRC. The exit slit belongs to a spherical grating type monochromator. (Reproduced with permission from [26] 1999 American Institute of Physics.)

Figure 4. SEM image of a 38 nm period line/space pattern printed in PMMA obtained with the Lloyds mirror interference technique. (Reproduced with permission from [26] 1999 American Institute of Physics.)

mirror, as imperfections in these elements can degrade the beam quality in terms of coherence and intensity uniformity. The slit in this setup functions as a one-dimensional spatial lter that guarantees a certain level of spatial coherence and intensity uniformity in the direction perpendicular to the slit. The LMI requires spatial coherence only in this direction; therefore, the use of a slit is a perfect match to the requirements of the interferometer. However one should remember that in a lithographic application homogenous exposure over the patterned area is a very important requirement. Therefore the slit in this interferometer can be replaced with a pinhole to provide beam intensity homogeneity in the direction parallel to the mirror as well. R176

The number of lines that can be recorded with the LMI is related to the temporal coherence of the source and limited to about , where is the spectral bandwidth of the illuminating beam. Since the emission from available soft x-ray sources has a rather wideband (e.g. 24% for undulators) printing a large number of lines requires the monochromatization of the beam, which reduces the usable ux. The reectivity of the mirror in LMI has to be high enough to maintain intensity balance between the two interfering beams. This requirement is easily satised for most practical purposes. For example a Ru coated mirror provides better than 80% reectivity up to an incidence angle of 17 at = 13.4 nm [28], which corresponds to a fringe visibility of higher than 99% for pattern periods down to 23 nm. The requirements on mirror roughness and gure error can be directly related to the desired pattern period. In general, mirror surface roughness reduces the reectivity through the DebyeWaller factor 2 DW = e(4 cos /) (6) where is the RMS roughness and is the angle of incidence. If we write the above equation in terms of the pattern period p it becomes 2 (7) DW = e(2/p) . As a practical example, the reectivity goes down by 10% when the RMS roughness is equal to about 5% of the pattern period. This does not represent a major problem for the LMI as the reduced reectivity does not have a strong impact on fringe visibility as we discussed before. However the scattering caused by the roughness on the surface has a much more damaging effect as it causes speckle in the reected

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beam [29]. Particles and other isolated defects can also lead to the appearance of speckle in the printed image. Therefore obtaining and maintaining good mirror quality is of utmost importance in LMI. 2.3. Interference with diffraction optics Various IL techniques based on diffraction gratings have been described and used in the visible/UV regions. Most, if not all, of these techniques use transmission gratings. In this section we review various grating based IL schemes that have been demonstrated using coherent EUV beams. One interesting aspect of all of these schemes is the existence of a certain relation between the period of the fringe pattern and the gratings that generate the fringe pattern. This relation implies the independence of the fringe pattern from the wavelength and hence the achromaticity of the techniques. This property is extremely important as it allows efcient use of power from the available sources in the EUV region which have rather wide spectral bandwidths as mentioned before. In one of the early experiments Wei et al [30] implemented the scheme depicted in gure 5 using an undulator source demonstrating the printing of 50 nm period gratings. The limited quality of the patterns obtained in this experiment was

attributed to vibrations in the system. We have more recently achieved pattern periods down to 40 nm and below using the same method [31]. Below we summarize the main features and some important aspects regarding the practical implementation of this technique. The wavefront-division interferometer in gure 5 consists of two transmission diffraction gratings of equal periods. These gratings are lithographically fabricated on a single substrate which we will refer to as the mask. The area between the gratings is covered with a lm (central-stop) that effectively absorbs all the incident light. This mask is illuminated with an EUV beam with a sufcient degree of spatial coherence as will be explained below. The gratings diffract the beam into multiple diffraction orders. Two rstorder diffracted beams from the two gratings overlap in the central area at a certain distance from the mask where they form an interference pattern, the period of which is equal to half of the grating period. The width of the patterned area, w, is equal to the width of one of the gratings. Therefore the illuminated area on the mask is three times larger than the nal pattern. Line/space type patterns recorded in polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) with this interferometer at the Swiss Light Source are shown in gure 6. The high quality of such patterns has made their application possible in a wide variety of elds as we will review in subsequent sections. This type of interferometer does not require temporal coherence as the optical paths travelled by the interfering beams are equal. This condition is not satised if the two gratings have different periods. In this case the formation of interference fringes and their visibility depends on whether the optical path difference is smaller than the longitudinal coherence length. One can show that if the periods are much smaller than the wavelength the fringe period is given by p= p 1 p2 , p1 + p 2 (8)

Figure 5. Schematic view of a grating-based interferometer. The rst-order diffracted beams from the two coherently illuminated gratings overlap and interfere to form an interference pattern. The period of the resulting fringe pattern is equal to half of the period of the gratings.

where p1 and p2 are the periods of the gratings on the mask. For a patterned area width of w, the separation between the interfering beams in the mask plane in gure 5 is 2w. Therefore the spatial coherence length of the beam in the direction perpendicular to the grating lines has to be greater than 2w. Similarly to the LMI case, coherence in the orthogonal direction is not relevant in the formation of the fringes.

Figure 6. (a) SEM image of an EUV grating mask etched into a Cr lm. The line period is 80 nm. (b) Image printed in a calixarene type negative resist (TEBN1 from Tokuyama Corp.) with twice the resolution, i.e. period is 40 nm. The grating fabrication with e-beam lithography and the EUV exposures were performed at the Paul Scherrer Institute.

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Figure 7. Iterative use of the EUV-IL technique to multiply the pattern resolution. (a) Original 200 nm period grating made with e-beam lithography etched into a Cr lm. (b) and (c) 100 and 50 nm period gratings made with EUV-IL using the gratings in (a) and (b), respectively, in the scheme shown in gure 4.

The masks used in this interferometer are made on semitransparent silicon nitride membranes with e-beam lithography [31] (gure 6). The materials for making the transmission gratings are selected based on their absorption and phase shifting properties as well as fabrication related considerations. The high absorption of all materials at EUV wavelengths requires the use of extremely thin support membranes, e.g. we have been using 100 nm thick Si3 N4 membranes which already absorb about 60% of the radiation. The high quality of the interference patterns that we have obtained using this technique enabled their use in an iterative fashion to further multiply the resolution. The images in gure 7 show a rst generation mask with 200 nm period made with e-beam lithography. The next image shows the mask with 100 nm period that was fabricated using the EUV interferometer. This mask was then used to obtain the 50 nm period in (c) of the same gure. The diffraction gratings on the mask constitute the only optics that the EUV beam sees before it is incident on the substrate. The image quality is strongly affected by the properties of the grating. For example, isolated defects in the grating, such as particles, can cause speckle in the image. In addition, periodic defects, such as eld stitching errors that may be present in e-beam made gratings are a big concern. Gratings made with laser IL can be a solution to this problem. 2.3.1. Multiple-beam interference. Two-dimensional structures such as arrays of holes, posts or grids can be obtained by a multiple exposure IL scheme in which the sample is turned between the exposures to record crossed fringe patterns. The fringe patterns of successive exposures are added incoherently resulting in a recorded image with reduced modulation. This results in a low process latitude, making the method too sensitive to potential variations in process parameters. In addition, the double exposure procedure brings in extra complexity and inconvenience to the process. Multiple-beam interference offers the possibility of obtaining high contrast two-dimensional patterns in a single exposure. Multiple beam interference in combination with a multiple exposure scheme was described recently, where the standard two-beam interference as well as three, four and ve beam exposure techniques were evaluated in terms of process latitude and obtained resist proles [32]. In a later report Fernandez and Phillion [33] pointed to the fact that in an interference scheme involving four or more beams the intensity prole R178

Figure 8. Four gratings arranged in the xy plane to generate an interference pattern in the x y plane.

depends dramatically on the relative phases of the interfering beams. Establishing and maintaining these phase relations in a system where beams are combined through reections from mirrors requires precise positioning and alignment of the optical components. We recently showed that this phase problem can be effectively solved using gratings to form multiple-beam interference patterns [34]. The principle is illustrated in gure 8 where diffracted beams from transmission gratings written on a single mask overlap in a common area to yield a desired pattern. The required control of the phases of the beams is achieved by the control of the phases (i.e. positions) of the gratings, denoted by i , i = 1, ..., 4, in the gure. In practice, this was realized by writing the diffraction gratings with an e-beam machine, which had an interferometrically controlled stage that allowed precise relative positioning of the gratings. Two distinct patterns that are of special interest can be obtained in the four-beam case. First, the intensity distribution shown in gure 9(a) is obtained when x y = (n + 1/2), (9)

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 9. Simulation and experimental results demonstrating the inuence of phases in multiple-beam interference. (a) Intensity distribution obtained with four-beam interference when equation (9) is satised. The grating period is 140 nm. (b) Dot pattern printed in PMMA with 70 nm period (i.e. p = 140 nm/2). (c) Simulated four-beam interference pattern when the relative phases of the gratings are such that the expression in equation (9) is equal to a multiple of . The grating period is taken as 100 nm. (d) Experimentally obtained pattern corresponding to the case simulated in (c). The hole array with 71 nm period is exposed in PMMA, (i.e. p = 100 nm/ 2). The contours were drawn at 10%, 35%, 60% and 85% of the peak intensity values in both the cases. Exposures were performed at the SLS using EUV light.

where n is an integer and x = (1 2 )/2 and y = (3 4 )/2. This distribution is equivalent to the incoherent addition of two two-beam interference patterns formed by the two sets of parallel gratings. The other interesting intensity pattern is obtained when the above phase factor in equation (9) is equal to a multiple of . In this case, again, a twodimensional pattern with square symmetry is obtained but the peaks in this case correspond to positions where all four beams add constructively to yield a very high contrast structure. Moreover, the peaks are surrounded all around by zero-intensity regions (gure 9(c)). Experimentally obtained patterns for both cases are shown in gures 9(b) and (d). In the discussion above, the periods of all the gratings generating the interfering beams were assumed to be the same. This guarantees that the optical paths traveled by all beams are of equal length which in turn makes the interference pattern independent of the wavelength. If the periods are not the same then the relative phases of the beams and hence the intensity pattern has a periodic dependence on the distance from the mask. Now, let us consider the case where there are gratings on the mask with two different periods, p1 and p2 . If both these periods are much larger than the wavelength, one can show that, in general, the pattern repeats itself with a period of pz =
2 2 2p1 p2 2 2 (p1 p2 )

(10)

in the z-direction. This presents a big challenge in multiplebeam interference since it requires the positioning of the substrate to be patterned in a plane where the desired intensity pattern is present. The z-dependence continues indenitely in this direction for a perfectly monochromatic illumination. However, if the illumination is polychromatic the optical path difference between the beams becomes larger than the longitudinal coherence length of the beam after a certain point in the z-direction [35]. From this point on the beams generated by gratings of different period do not interfere anymore; rather they simply add up in intensity. This lets us group the gratings in the mask according to their periods. The gratings within each group with the same period will produce interference patterns that are independent of the distance from the mask. On the other hand the interference patterns produced by different grating groups will simply add up in intensity. Consequently the resulting total intensity pattern will also be z-independent. Two particular implementations of this concept are illustrated in gures 10 and 11. In the four-beam case shown in gure 10(a), the mask is designed with two different periods p and p/2. Each set forms a one-dimensional interference pattern which are added incoherently to yield an intensity distribution with periods p/2 and p/4 in the two orthogonal directions. The SEM image in gure 10(b) shows the results of the experimental implementation where a mask with 200 R179

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Figure 10. (a) Layout of a mask that combines two two-beam interference patterns incoherently, i.e. the interference patterns due to the grating sets with p and p/2 period are added incoherently. (b) Experimental verication showing dots exposed in a PMMA lm with 200 and 100 nm periods in the two orthogonal directions (from [35]).

Figure 11. (a) Layout of a mask that combines two four-beam interference patterns incoherently, i.e. the interference patterns due to the grating sets with p and p/2 period are added incoherently. (b) Experimental verication showing rings exposed in a PMMA lm with 283 nm period (from [35]). Addition of more beams (eight in this case) brings in more exibility to the design of the structure within the unit cell of the periodic structure.

and 400 nm period gratings was used. A more complex arrangement in gure 11(a) brings together eight beams to form an intensity pattern that yielded the nano-ring array seen in gure 11(b). Note that in this case the relative phases of the four gratings (inner and outer sets with periods p and p/2, respectively) had to be controlled as explained earlier in this section. This achromatic multiple-beam IL technique makes it possible to create periodic patterns with a variety of unit cell shapes while maintaining the large depth-of-focus advantage of the interference technique. Many different unit cell shapes are possible by varying the number of beams and the relative phases of the beams. Other potentially interesting possibilities include sparse hole and dot arrays and sparse line/space patterns. This method is particularly well suited to the EUV wavelength region because it makes optimum use of the undulator sources which provide spatially coherent radiation with a rather large bandwidth. 2.3.2. Variable period interference patterns. Variable period gratings (VPG) are used in many optical applications such R180

as dispersion gratings in spectrometers and the FZP lenses. Moreover, in many scientic experiments the period of the structures under study is an important parameter that needs to be varied, as the examples we present in the next section illustrate. Holographic techniques have been developed to make such patterns possible using monochromatic laser sources [7]. In the EUV region, however, we are again faced with the need to use wideband sources. In all the interference setups based on diffraction gratings that we have presented so far, the period of the formed interference fringes depends on the grating period. We have also seen that when different periods are present on the mask, the generated beams will not form an interference pattern if the optical path length differences exceed the longitudinal coherence length of the light. We have recently overcome this apparent challenge by demonstrating the fabrication of a FZP using IL. This was achieved by designing a scheme where the grating periods on the mask are variable, but yet there is no optical path length difference between the interfering beams. In the following, we will outline this method, which can be extended to the fabrication of

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Figure 12. Two ring-shaped FZP create diverging and converging spherical beams that overlap at a certain AIP which is found at the halfway point between the foci of the two FZP on the mask. The optical paths traveled by the two spherical beams are equal when they meet at this plane. The inner and outer radii of the parent zone plates can be chosen so that in a certain annular range at the image plane the undesired diffraction orders are absent. A schematic frontal view of the mask is shown in the lower right.

variable period patterns beyond the FZP achieved in this demonstration. In its most common form, a FZP consists of absorbing or phase shifting concentric circular rings positioned on a transparent substrate. These lenses are used in x-ray imaging applications that demand high spatial resolution. The resolution obtained with a FZP is determined by the width of the smallest (outermost) zones. FZPs are currently made with electron beam lithography down to a resolution of 15 nm [18] but this method faces signicant challenges due to the proximity effect and pattern placement difculties. Yun and Howells [36] proposed a soft x-ray holographic method for the fabrication of high resolution lenses. This method which is similar to the interference schemes that we have reviewed above requires highly monochromatic illumination (i.e. long coherence length) due to optical path length differences, which makes implementation difcult since the available soft x-ray sources cannot provide the necessary photon ux with the required coherence. The achromatic holographic method that is schematically described in gure 12 overcomes this problem [37]. Here a mask containing two ring-shaped zone plates creates two spherical beamsone converging and the other one diverging. These beams travel equal optical path lengths before they meet at a certain achromatic interference plane (AIP) that lies halfway between the foci of the diverging and converging beams. The interference pattern formed in the AIP has double the frequency of the FZP and it can be used to record a ringshaped FZP. Analytical derivation and numerical simulations show the formation of interference pattern (gure 13).

For the experimental demonstration, a mask bearing two FZP was manufactured with EBL. This mask was then used at the EUV-IL beamline of the Swiss Light Source in holographic exposures to fabricate a ring-shaped lens. The illuminating beam spectrum was centred at 13.4 nm and its width was 4%. The resulting FZP had zones as ne as 60 nm, which is half the zone width of the EBL-made ones on the mask. The performance of the lens was measured at the same beamline using a highly monochromatic beam. The optical performance of the lens was slightly worse than the ideal behavior which was attributed to zone placement errors in the EBL-made mask [37]. This method could, in principle, yield zone plates with zone widths as small as one-quarter of the wavelength, which corresponds to 3.5 nm with the wavelength used in our experiment. 2.4. Self-imagining of gratings: achromatic talbot effect Almost two centuries ago Henry Fox Talbot rst reported the self-imaging property of gratings which has since come to be known as the Talbot effect. When a grating is illuminated with a sufciently coherent light beam, images that closely resemble the grating itself are observed at periodic distances away from the grating (gure 14). These so-called Talbot images occur with a period = p2 / where p is the grating period. Moreover, at certain integer fractions of this distance higher spatial frequency images are observed with the frequency being a multiple of the frequency of the original grating. This effect has been exploited to achieve lithographic printing of high resolution periodic structures using a grating mask with lower resolution features [38]. In a sense, this introduces the R181

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Figure 13. Calculated intensity distribution near the AIP for (a) monochromatic and (b) wide spectrum ( / = 0.04) illumination. The fringes are a part of the elliptical curves that correspond to the constant optical path difference surfaces between the two sources located at the respective foci of the two parent zone plates. (Reproduced with permission from [37] 2004 American Institute of Physics.)

Figure 14. (a) Calculated Talbot images of a one-dimensional grating illuminated by a plane wave. The sketch on top shows one period of the grating, with an opening in the middle and two partial absorbers on the sides. The self-images are repeated with a period (Talbot distance) of about 2.9 m. (b) The disappearance of the periodic Talbot images after a certain distance from the grating due to the polychromatic illumination. The image becomes completely stationary for distances greater than about 250 m. Note that the period of the nal intensity distribution (100 nm) at large z, is half the period of the original grating (200 nm). The simulated grating period is 200 nm and the central wavelength and the bandwidth are 13.4 nm and 2.8% respectively. (Reproduced with permission from [40] 2005 AVS, The Science and Technology Society.)

demagnication factor into IL, which is considered to be a big advantage enjoyed by projection photolithography, as the lower resolution mask is much easier to fabricate. The Talbot effect is also observed with two-dimensional gratings, which has recently been used in the fabrication of 2D photonic structures [39]. The depth of eld of the self-images is equal to only a fraction of the Talbot distance , which scales with the square of the grating period. Therefore in the lithographic application of this scheme the substrate has to be positioned with an accuracy much better than in order to record a desired pattern. This becomes an enormous challenge for recording nanometer scale patterns, e.g. when p = 100 nm and = 13 nm, R182

the depth of eld is much smaller than the corresponding Talbot distance, = 769 nm. We have recently described a new related method that we termed achromatic spatial frequency multiplication (ASFM) that overcomes the depthof-eld limitation and makes efcient use of the wideband sources available in the EUV region [40]. ASFM is based on the observation that when the illumination is polychromatic the periodic dependence of the image on the distance from the grating disappears after a certain distance from the grating. This happens while a periodic distribution in the transverse plane persists. The simulated intensity distribution in gure 14(b) shows the achievement of the stationary image after a distance of 250 m in this

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Figure 15. (a) SEM image of a 200 nm period, one-dimensional grating mask etched into Cr and Si3 N4 lms. (b) 100 nm period grating printed in PMMA using the mask shown in (a) by the ASFM method. (Reproduced with permission from [40] 2005 AVS, The Science and Technology Society.)

particular case. The bandwidth of radiation and the grating period determine the distance at which this stationary image is obtained za through the relation za = 2p 2 . (11)

This distance should serve as a rough guide since the transition to the stationary regime is gradual and the exact behaviour depends on the spectral line-shape. The spatial coherence length, lc , required by this method can be estimated by considering the contribution of different diffraction orders of the grating to the image, which yields lc 4p . (12)

The feasibility of the ASFM method was demonstrated in experiments performed at the EUV-IL beamline of the SLS which was set to provide spatially coherent EUV radiation with = 13.4 nm and / = 0.028. The mask and the resulting pattern recorded in PMMA are shown in gure 15. The ASFM method brings certain advantages as well as challenges. Starting from the latter, the grating masks used in ASFM must have good diffraction efciency in order to achieve good modulation in the image. In contrast, in the previous methods where only one diffracted order from a grating contributed to the image, the diffraction efciency only affected the incident power on the sample with no impact on the image modulation. On the positive side, the ASFM method is conceptually simple, with a one maskone image correspondence that resembles better known techniques such as contact photolithography or proximity x-ray lithography. Moreover, the spatial coherence requirement is much more relaxed because the required spatial coherence length is now related to the period p through equation (12), rather than the overall size of the pattern, as was the case for the other techniques that we discussed. In other words, with ASFM a large area pattern can be recorded without having to illuminate an area of comparable or larger size with a fully coherent beam.

new synchrotron radiation based EUV-IL facility was built at the SLS, which will be followed by another one in the SSRFShanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility [41]. The development of EUV-IL has come at a time of increasing need for sub-100 nm period structures in areas such as data storage and nano-optics. In the sections below we review some of the elds where EUV-IL has been used to make the necessary structures. The rst two applications on BC and colloidal systems represent the combination of the top-down patterning capability of EUV-IL with bottom-up self-assembly processes. The next two on the magnetic and nano-optical systems are about direct fabrication of the required nanostructures with EUV-IL. And nally resist characterization for EUV lithography is an important use of the technique in the development of the next generation projection EUVL technology. 3.1. Epitaxial assembly of block copolymers BC have potential for use in nanofabrication techniques because they self-assemble to form ordered structures at length scales of 1050 nanometres. It is possible to fabricate structures at this scale with topdown lithographic techniques such as e-beam lithography, but these methods employ kinetically controlled processing techniques that preclude strict control of dimensions. Molecular self-assembly, on the other hand, leads to congurations that are at thermodynamic equilibrium in which the desired structure is coded in the chemistry and properties of the molecules. The persistence length, over which the molecularly self-assembled structures are ordered, however, is typically in the sub-micron range preventing their use in many areas of nanotechnology where addressable arrays are required. The principal concept in this application is to combine EUV-IL with self-assembling BC systems in a hybrid approach. EUV-IL is used to pattern substrates with regions of different chemical functionality with dimensions and spatial arrangement commensurate with the characteristic dimensions of the domain structure of the polymer. Upon ordering, the morphology of a BC lm on the surface is guided towards the desired long-range order and orientation, amplifying the pattern of the surface. In the early experiments Self Assembled Monolayers (SAM) on Si wafers were used to create templates with chemical contrast on which the BC lms were epitaxially R183

3. Applications of coherent x-ray nano-lithography

The rst serious efforts to use EUV-IL for making useful nanostructures started with a demonstration experiment less than a decade ago [26]. Since that starting at the SRC, a

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3.2. Guided assembly of colloidal particles Self-assembly of colloidal particles to form crystal-like regular structures has been a subject of intense research and development effort recently. Potential applications include fabrication of photonic bandgap materials, data storage and nano-optical devices. However, similarly to the case of BC described above, there is a need to control the self-assembly process to remove the effects of random nucleation to achieve addressable arrays with long-range order. Guided-assembly of colloidal particles on patterned templates is a promising method for fabricating such particle arrays. In a recent study, Juillerat et al [11] deposited such arrays on templates produced by EUV-IL. The experiments were designed with many variations to increase the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of the assembly process and to develop robust techniques that would enable the fabrication of virtually defect-free arrays over large areas. The arrays were deposited through a dip-coating technique using particles with diameters in the 1550 nm range. The templates fabricated for this study consisted of patterned PMMA lms on Cr or SiO2 coated Si wafers. Arrays of grooves or holes were obtained in the PMMA lms using EUV-IL exposures at the SLS. Gold (50 and 15 nm) and silica (50 nm) particles in aqueous suspensions were used in dip-coating experiments. The parameters varied in the dip-coating process were removal speed, removal direction with respect to the pattern on the substrate, particle concentration and pH. The experiments showed the need to tune the deposition conditions to avoid uncontrolled agglomeration at one extreme and to avoid complete lack of particle attachment at the other extreme. Figure 17 shows an example where gold particles are assembled on a substrate with a linear groove pattern. The large number of observations have led to a conceptually simple model of the assembly process. During the dipcoating, particles diffuse towards the liquid meniscus due to the presence of a local pressure gradient that induces water to ow in the same direction. The experimental conditions (speed, concentration, pH) have to be adapted to prevent agglomeration and to keep the particles in the suspended state in the meniscus. When this is achieved the particles are driven into the grooves on the template by capillary forces towards the later stages of drying. The capillary forces also pull the particles towards each other inside the grooves thus forming the dense particle chains that were observed. When the grooves are parallel to the dipping direction, this assembly process resembles the growth of a crystal where particles are continuously supplied from the suspension. This study has shown the feasibility of fabricating arrays of particles as small as 15 nm over large areas using guided self-assembly. No inherent limitations of the assembly process were found that would restrict the quality or the size of the nanoparticle arrays. No specic chemistry is required on the template or the particles to enable the assembly process. This is another example where one needs a large number of high-resolution samples that can readily be fabricated by EUV-IL. 3.3. Magnetic dot-arrays Magnetic recording devices in the form of circular discs (hard discs) coated uniformly with thin lms of magnetic

Figure 16. Epitaxial assembly of BC domains. The top half of the gure shows the random formation of BC domains on a neutral surface. The bottom half shows the guidance of the domains by an underlying chemical pattern obtained with EUV-IL. This image as taken at the border of the patterned area. The period of the domains is 47.5 nm (Courtesy of Kim et al [12]).

aligned. In some of these experiments the SAM layer was exposed with EUV-IL in an O2 containing atmosphere to create a surface with alternating stripes of hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions [42]. The exposures in these rst experiments were performed with a LMI using a wideband source, and hence the number of lines was limited. A two-step process was later developed in which a PMMA layer was rst patterned on the SAM with EUV-IL, which was subsequently used as a mask in a second exposure to modify the underlying SAM lm. This second process and the use of a grating type interferometer led to much better control in the fabrication of the templates. In the nal step of the process, a BC lm was deposited on the template and annealed until it reached its equilibrium domain structure. Perfect ordering of BC lms over long ranges without defects was demonstrated for the rst time with this approach (gure 16) [12]. The dependence of epitaxial assembly on the degree of mismatch between the surface period and the natural period of the BC system was studied under exactly the same process conditions thanks to the presence of multiple periods on the same mask used in EUV-IL exposures. In a further development of the technique the SAM layer was replaced with BC brush lms that provide higher contrast chemical templates on which the BC assembly process is more robust [43]. EUV-IL has played a critical role in the success of this epitaxial assembly approach by providing the large number of samples required for experimentation with different process conditions and materials. Work is in progress for the extension of the technique to BC polymers that form 2D hexagonally packed cylindrical domains. The processes and materials developed with the help of EUV-IL can be used later with other lithography systems, such as NIL that are more suitable for high-volume manufacturing. R184

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Figure 17. Gold particles 50 nm in diameter assembled on a one-dimensional grating template fabricated with EUV-IL by the dip-coating technique. The template consists of PMMA lines with 100 nm period. The partial coverage is attributed to the low concentration of gold colloid suspension used in this experiment. (Reproduced with permission from [11] 2005 IOP Publishing.)

materials are used in many information systems. The aerial density of data storage on magnetic media increases with a compound growth rate between 60100% per year. However it is widely accepted that this trend cannot continue much further because of the so-called super-paramagnetic effect which states that beyond a certain point the bits will become too small to retain the magnetically recorded information. This problem can be circumvented by the use of patterned media where each bit of information is stored in an isolated magnetic element. However this solution presents a daunting fabrication challenge as the magnetic elements have to be packed in arrays with periods smaller than 50 nm. In addition, the production technique has to be able to pattern large areas at such resolution with an acceptable speed and cost. Many different fabrication schemes including self-assembling systems and NIL-based lithographic fabrication techniques are currently being researched to address this challenge [44]. The potential of the EUV-IL method for fabricating magnetic arrays was demonstrated in a recent study by Heyderman et al [45]. In this study, PMMA coated substrates were exposed with a four-beam interference scheme to create hole arrays with periods in the 71113 nm range in the PMMA lm. The holes were subsequently lled with Ni using an electrodeposition process, after which the PMMA lm was removed. The Ni dot-arrays obtained in this way were imaged with SEM (gure 18) and their magnetic behavior was characterized with Photoemission Electron Microscopy (PEEM) and magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) measurements. The results show the interaction between the Ni dots through stray-elds which become especially pronounced when the inter-particle separation goes below 20 nm. 3.4. Nano-optics Optical behavior of subwavelength structures is a vibrant area of research because of the interest in the underlying

Figure 18. Array of Ni magnetic dots fabricated with EUV-IL and an electrodeposition process. The period of the pattern obtained with four-beam interference is 71 nm. (Reproduced with permission from [45] 2004 American Institute of Physics.)

physics and the large number of potential applications. For example, form-birefringent gratings and nanostructured antireection coatings are made from dielectric materials [46]. High-performance polarizers and beam-splitters are made from subwavelength metallic wire-grids [47]. The discovery of extraordinary transmission of light through subwavelength hole arrays in metal lms has unleashed a urry of activity looking at the transmission mechanisms and potential applications in spectral lters and sensors [48]. R185

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Figure 19. Cross section of a bilayer Al grating fabricated with EUV-IL. The structure was obtained by evaporating Al on a photoresist structure. The line perod is 100 nm. (Courtesy of Ekinci et al [49]).

EUV-IL has potential for signicant contribution in this eld as many studies and applications require high resolution periodic structures, especially devices for the UV and shorter wavelengths in the visible spectrum that stand to benet greatly from structure periods below 100 nm. As a rst example, a new type of polarizer was developed using EUV-IL exposures [49]. The polarizer shown in gure 19 is a novel structure that combines two metal wire-grids with precise control of the gap and the alignment of the two gratings. The fabrication involves a simple deposition of a metal lm on a photoresist grating which was made with EUV-IL using a grating type interferometer at the SLS. This structure was measured to have an extinction ratio of better than 40 dB and a transmission of about 50%. The optical behavior of this structure is controlled by FabryPerot interference and near-eld coupling between its two layers. Fabrication of other metallic and dielectric structures, such as 2D arrays of particles or holes with different symmetries are also possible with EUV-IL. 3.5. Photoresist characterization for EUV lithography EUVL is one of the leading candidates to replace the current deep-UV photolithography technology for the production of integrated circuits with critical dimensions of 32 nm and smaller. At a recent EUVL symposium in San Diego development of new photoresist materials have been identied as the top critical issue for successful introduction of the technology. The main issues under consideration in the development of EUV resists are resolution, exposure dose sensitivity and line edge roughness (LER). This effort requires access to EUV exposure tools with resolution that goes below the 32 nm level of the foreseen introduction node. EUVIL provides the necessary platform with ample resolution to characterize the performance of the candidate materials. This application has played a special role in the development of the EUV-IL as it provided one of the main motivations and R186

part of the funding in the early days at the University of Wisconsin [50, 51]. While the early studies employed the LMI for characterizing resist materials [50], recent tests have been mainly carried out on grating type interferometers that were described in section 2.3 [5254]. The grating masks used in the resist tests are designed for exposing line/space patterns with a number of different periods at the same time. The lengths of the exposed lines (typically about one millimetre) allow for easy cross section measurements. Figure 20 shows line/space patterns in PMMA in comparison to a chemically amplied resist (CAR) that is under development for EUVL [54]. PMMA is a high resolution resist that has potential down to 20 nm and below and the structures in gure 20 seem to be very promising in terms of the achievable low LER. But the sensitivity of PMMA is low, requiring a high exposure dose of about 40 mJ cm2 [55]. This is an important consideration in the cost of the EUVL technology as the sensitivity is directly related to the throughput of a system with a given source power. Therefore CARs that amplify the affect of the reactions caused directly by the impinging photons are being developed to provide lower sensitivity and higher throughput. This gure illustrates some of the problems faced in this development effort. The CARs essentially stop working at about 35 nm resolution and there is high LER in comparison to the PMMA structures. To date tens of candidate materials have been tested with EUV-IL. In general none of the CAR platforms that have been tested goes below 30 nm resolution for dense lines. In addition to the limited resolution, the resists suffer from high LER which hovers above 5 nm for all of the tested platforms. After at least a decade of developmental effort, commercial projection EUV exposure tools are now being tested at several places around the world. While these tools will be useful for testing of resolution down to about 30 nm level, EUV-IL will continue to provide a robust platform for testing materials down to 20 nm and below.

4. Conclusions
Considerable progress has been made in the development of EUV-IL as a fabrication technique and in its application to various nano-patterning problems. On the one hand, this progress reects the fundamental advantages of EUV-IL that has attracted interest, mainly the high resolution potential due to the short wavelength and the practical absence of the proximity effect at this energy. The other factors that have fuelled the development are the advances made in the required technologies, i.e. the light source and optics that enable the formation of high-resolution interference elds and the photoresists and pattern transfer tools that turn the formed images into useful structures. In the future, fabrication of large area grating masks with laser holography should enable the production of large-area, high-quality nanostructures with EUV-IL. The wide bandwidth of the sources will continue to require the use of achromatic interference schemes. However, this is not necessarily a limitation as many innovative solutions have already been found in this direction. While the reported work has mainly used light at about 13 nm wavelength, there is no reason not to use other energies in the EUV range, for example to

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Figure 20. Line/space patterns printed in PMMA (top-row) and an experimental EUV resist (bottom-row). The half-pitch values are shown below the images (Courtesy of Jouve et al [54]).

obtain better diffraction efciency or deeper penetration into the photoresist. As the resolution is pushed further into the sub-20 nm regime, new photoresist materials will be needed to realize the full potential of EUV-IL. We can all look forward to the achievement of unprecedented resolution values below 10 nm, which will enable new applications because there is no fundamental limit that we are facing and technically it seems to be feasible.

Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Franco Cerrina who has initiated the current progress in EUV-IL with his early recognition of its potential. Paul Nealey of the University of Wisconsin and Jens Gobrecht and Christian David of the Paul Scherrer Institute have greatly contributed to this work in many ways. He is also indebted to many colleagues who have participated in the experiments, construction of beamlines and useful discussions. The EUV exposures were performed at the Swiss Light Source, Villigen PSI, Switzerland, and the SRC, Stoughton, WI, USA.

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[40] Solak H H and Ekinci Y 2005 J. Vac. Sci. Technol. 23 2705 [41] Tai R, Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, private communication [42] Yang X M, Peters R D, Nealey P F, Solak H H and Cerrina F 2000 Macromolecules 33 9575 [43] Edwards E W, Montague M F, Solak H H, Hawker C J and Nealey P F 2004 Adv. Mater. 16 1315 [44] Terris B D and Thomson T 2005 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 38 R199 [45] Heyderman L J, Solak H H, David C, Atkinson D, Cowburn R P, and Nolting F 2004 Appl. Phys. Lett. 85 4989 [46] Wang J J, Deng X G, Varghese R, Nikolov A, Sciortino P, Liu F and Chen L 2005 Opt. Lett. 30 1864 [47] Ahn S W, Lee K D, Kim J S, Kim S H, Park J D, Lee S H and Yoon P W 2005 Nanotechnology 16 1874

[48] Ebbesen T W, Lezec H J, Ghaemi H F, Ghaemi H F, Thio T and Wolff P A 1998 Nature 391 667 [49] Ekinci Y, Solak H H, David C and Sigg H 2006 Opt. Exp. 14 2323 [50] Solak H H, He D, Li W, Cerrina F, Sohn B H, Yang X M and Nealey P F 1999 SPIE Proc. 3676 278 [51] Solak H H, He D, Li W and Cerrina F 1999 J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 17 3052 [52] Goethals A M, Gronheid R, Leunissen L H A, Van Roey F, Solak H H 2005 J. Photopolym. Sci. Technol. 18 647 [53] Jouve A, Simon J, Foucher J, David T, Tortai J-H, Solak H H 2005 Proc. SPIE 5753 720 [54] Gronheid R, Solak H H, Ekinci Y, Jouve A and Van Roey F 2006 Microelectronic Eng. at press [55] He D, Solak H H, Li W and Cerrina F 1999 J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 17 3379

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