| AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Vacuum Technology Division | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session VT-WeM |
| Session: | Transfer and Ultraclean Systems, Particle Control, and History |
| Presenter: | Freek Molkenboer, TNO, Netherlands |
| Authors: | F.T. Molkenboer, TNO, Netherlands N.B. Koster, TNO, Netherlands A.F. Deutz, TNO, Netherlands B.A.H. Nijland, TNO, Netherlands P.J. Kerkhof, TNO, Netherlands P.M. Muilwijk, TNO, Netherlands B.W. Oostdijck, TNO, Netherlands J. Westerhout, TNO, Netherlands C.L. Hollemans, TNO, Netherlands W.F.W. Mulckhuyse, TNO, Netherlands M. van Putten, TNO, Netherlands P. van der Wall, TNO, Netherlands A.M. Hoogstrate, TNO, Netherlands J.R.H. Diesveld, TNO, Netherlands A. Abutan, TNO, Netherlands |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
In 2015 TNO started the design of a new Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) exposure facility, called EUV Beam line 2 (EBL2). EBL2 will be a publicly accessible test facility for EUV lithography related research and qualification. The realisation of the EBL2 started at the end of Q1 2016. On December 7th 2016 the important milestone “ First light” was accomplished.
EBL2 is designed to be able to load a wide range of sample types, including the EUV industry standard 6” reticles. To achieve this, all the samples are loaded using the SEMI standardised EUV dual pods.
Sample loading for the EBL2 facility starts at the Atmospheric Handler. The EUV dual pod is opened, and the Atmospheric Handler robot transfers the sample to the load lock of the EBL2 system. The Atmospheric Handler has several ultra-clean environments to limit the particle contamination on the samples.
After the load lock is evacuated to vacuum, the robot of the Vacuum Handler will transport the sample to the operator-selected module of the EBL2 system. Besides the load lock, the Vacuum Handler connects to the Expose Chamber, an XPS, and two chambers that are used for storage and cleaning of samples. In the Exposure Chamber samples can be exposed to EUV irradiation in various controllable gas environments. An XPS is available for surfaces analysis after an experiment while maintaining vacuum. The handling between the chambers is fully automated with multiple checks to ensure sample safety.
When a sample is transported to the Exposure Chamber the sample must be flipped from a horizontal loading position to a vertical mounting position. This is due to the design constraints of the EUV source and illumination module of the EBL2 system. After this flip from horizontal to vertical the sample must be positioned and clamped against the cooled Sample Chuck.
Both the flip and the clamping motions use pneumatic actuated bellows that are located inside the Exposure Chamber.
The Sample Chuck positions the sample in the EUV irradiation spot across the entire 6” reticle. The movement of the Sample Chuck is accomplished with a Hexapod that is located outside the vacuum. The vacuum barrier between the hexapod and the Sample Chuck is a large edge welded bellow.
During this presentation we will discuss our implemented design solutions for sample handling in ultra-clean vacuum. The objective of the design and implementation are to maintain the stringent vacuum and particle requirements for these kind of experiments.