Scaling trends in the semiconductor industry towards smaller technology nodes and feature sizes are continuing and first consumer products manufactured with the help of EUV technology are already on the market. Major industrial players have introduced EUV lithography into their production at the 7nm technology node and with the 5nm node being on its way [1], the amount of EUV lithographic layers is expected to rise significantly and implementation of EUV double patterning is anticipated. These developments lead to more strict technological requirements especially for the corresponding EUV but also for the used high-end DUV photomasks in terms of minimum feature sizes and acceptable Edge Placement Errors (EPE). Moreover, photomask defectivity increases dramatically with shrinking feature sizes. This creates significant challenges to the industry, as in particular the most cost intensive EUV photomasks possess the highest numbers of defects. The current industry standard for high-end photomask repair tools is the MeRiT neXT [2]. To face the upcoming challenges an efficient and reliable way to repair future high-end photomasks is inevitable. A corresponding repair tool must address decreased minimum feature sizes and increased pattern complexity on high-end photomasks. In this paper we present our latest results of high-end EUV repairs carried out on the next generation photomask repair tool MeRiT LE. The tool shows improved system dynamics, makes use of a new electron beam column, which operates at a low electron beam voltage down to 400V and enables the repair of next generation ultra-small defects.
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