Mask technologies for soft-x-ray projection lithography at 13 nm

We describe a variety of technologies for patterning transmissive and reflective soft x-ray projection lithography masks containing features as small as 0.1 μm. The transmission masks fabricated for use at 13 nm are of one type, a Ge-absorbing layer patterned on a boron-doped Si membrane. Reflective masks were patterned by various methods that included absorbing layers formed on top of multilayer reflectors, multilayer-reflector-coating removal by reactive ion etching, and ion damage of multilayer regions by ion implantation. For the first time, we believe, a process for absorber repair that does not significantly damage the reflectance of the multilayer coating on the reflection mask is demonstrated.