High sensitivity actinic detection of native defects on extreme ultraviolet lithography mask blanks

We present recent experimental results of actinic extreme ultraviolet lithography mask blank defect inspection. The detection sensitivity of the current actinic inspection system is predicted to be able to reach approximately 30 nm in cross correlation experiments done with commercial visible-light, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) inspection tools. Random, native defects identified using the visible-light tool were scanned by the actinic tool and the scattering characteristics were compared. SEM and AFM characterization of selected defects were also performed for physical measurement. We found a defect whose size was as small as 60 nm and AFM analysis showed that this defect was a 3 nm high substrate defect that was smoothed-out by the multilayer coating. (C) 2001 American Vacuum Society.