Application of zirconium silicon oxide films to an attenuated phase-shifting mask in ArF lithography

The application of an attenuated phase-shifting mask (Att-PSM) to ArF excimer laser lithography is very promising in the pattern fabrication below 0.13 /spl mu/m. Zirconium silicon oxide (ZrSiO) film has been proposed as the phase shifter material for Att-PSM. The bi-layer ZrSiO film is composed of the absorptive film (AF) with a low oxygen concentration and the transmissive film (TF) with a high oxygen concentration to control the transmittance and the phase shift respectively. We must overcome the durability of the shifter material to an ArF excimer laser irradiation for practical use. In this paper, we present the ArF irradiation durability of ZrSiO films and the lithographic performance by applying it to Att-PSM in ArF lithography.