Date: 15/04/2012

Tech to repair 10nm photomasks used in semiconductor equipment

SII NanoTechnology Inc. a 100% subsidiary of Seiko Instruments Inc. has developed a photomask repair technology for 16nm half pitch (hp) generation used in lithography based semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

This method is based on Focused Ion Beam (FIB) technology equipped with newly developed Gas Field Ion Source (GFIS) enables to repair defects on photomask for 16nm hp generation. Furthermore, EUV mask and nanoimprint template can be repaired using this repair technology.

Present FIB technology using Liquid Metal Gallium Ion Source or electron beam (EB) technology only supports repair of 28nm node photomasks. This FIB GFIS based repair solution from SII can support 14nm and such below 20nm nodes.