NMEIC: New Materials for Extreme ultraviolet & Integrated Circuits
Project number: HTSM 13323
Title: New Materials for Extreme ultraviolet & Integrated Circuits (NMEIC)
Executive organisational unit: XUV Optics, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente and Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Project leader: Dr. J.M. Sturm (j.m.sturm@utwente.nl)
Duration: 2014-2018
Researcher: Dr. B. Mund, Dr. C. Lee, MESA+
Industrial partners: ASML, Zeiss SMT
Results and utilisation
Objectives of this project were to investigate graphene as pellicle (protective film that keeps particles away from a photolithography mask) and as protective capping layer on multilayer mirrors in EUV lithography equipment. Atomic Layer Deposition has been used for developing new methods for graphene growth and the chemical resistance of graphene under EUV illumination has been studied.
Graphene growth on MoCx films generated by ALD has been produced by our project partners at Eindhoven University of Technology. At Twente, degradation mechanisms of graphene under exposure to EUV, H2 and H2O have been investigated. EUV exposure in H2 resulted in generation of H radicals, which may etch graphene and/or generate defect sites. These defects enhanced the sensitivity of graphene for oxidation by reactions induced by EUV and H2O. In addition, the photochemistry of CO2 and H2 on Ru were studied.
The knowledge on EUV induced photochemistry obtained in this project is utilised in current projects “FRAME” and “Industrial Focus Group XUV Optics”.