Abstract
Electrostatic charge generation and accumulation in a:SiNx thin films irradiated by energetic (100 keV) electrons is investigated and kinetic equations describing the dynamic process are formulated. It is found that the incident electrons, inelastically scattered in the membrane, primarily generate plasmons. The plasmon decay creates electron-hole pairs and secondary electrons (SE). The escape of the SEs from the target leads to a positive electrostatic charge accumulation in the membrane. It is shown that SCALPEL mask-membrane charging is defined by the balance of the SE escape, hole trapping and transport processes.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 223-226 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Microelectronic Engineering |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 1999 |
| Event | Proceedings of the 1998 International Conference on Micro- and Nanofabrication (MNE98) - Leuven Duration: Sep 22 1998 → Sep 24 1998 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was partially supported by DARPA and SEMATECH