In the scanner, various forces act on the EUV pellicle. Identifying the underlying causes of pellicle destruction is challenging, and the criteria for evaluating the lifetime of the pellicle are ambiguous. Therefore, it is essential to analyze the complex forces that affect the pellicle and investigate how they impact its durability. Particle defects, in particular, can significantly reduce the lifetime of the pellicle, leading to mechanical damage such as deformation or destruction. To investigate these effects, we examined how particle defects impact the pellicle in the scanner environment, classifying them based on the type of defect. We modeled a scenario involving mask stage acceleration and compared the impact of defect conditions on pellicles, considering the increased scanner speed of a high-NA scanner. The results show that the stress around the defect increases rapidly due to the acceleration of the pellicle after being deflected by gravity. The embedded defect shows the highest stress, which has the potential to decrease the lifetime of the pellicle due to repeated acceleration.
The extreme ultraviolet (EUV) pellicle on the EUV mask is used to prevent the image distortion, and the lifetime of the pellicle is important because it is directly related to the yield. However, particle defects can significantly impact the lifetime of the pellicle, causing thermal or mechanical damage such as deformation or increased temperature. To study these effects, we explored how particle defects affect the pellicle, including scenarios where defects on the pellicle or collide with it. We found that there was no temperature and stress accumulation with repeated exposure of the pellicle regardless of the defect exitance. The collision of flying particles gave little mechanical effect with the known impulse inside the scanner. The metal-silicide core pellicles showed better thermal stability compared to the poly-silicon core pellicles and that could be the reason why metal-silicide pellicles showed longer lifetime.
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