LayoutEditor Release 20160425

4/24/2016

A new release of LayoutEditor is ready for DOWNLOAD.  As always Juergen has added many improvements.

Contact us if you need any help with the update.  If you don't yet have a license, you can buy a perpetual license for LayoutEditor in our STORE.

Meet Amber

4/11/2016

At PhotomaskPORTAL, we strive to make a great first impression. And nobody is more important in that regard than the person who assembles the shipment.

Amber is one of the people who ships our product. And she is a bonafide artist when it comes to composing the package so that it not only protects the product during transit but also looks good when it arrives.

Amber does a fantastic job and makes our product look its best. Amber is awesome!

CNF Annual Meeting and Student Poster Competition

9/25/2015

We enjoyed attending the 2015 CNF Annual Meeting in Ithaca, NY and getting to meet many of the users. Congratulations to all the students that participated in the poster competition. Photos are courtesy of Cornell University Photography.

Thank you, Professors Kurinec and Ewbank ...

9/18/2015

... and Spencer, Emily, Salih Muhammad and the rest of the MCEE 601 class for inviting me to talk about photomasks.

Understanding Mask Parity: Getting Wrong-Reading Right

8/24/2015

If the pattern you design for a photomask is not "mirror-symmetric" it will appear as a normal image from one side of the mask and a mirror-image from the other side. This is called Mask Parity. The fundamental question we have when we build a mask is "Which pattern orientation do you want us to write on the chrome surface of the mask: the image you supplied or the mirror-image?"

To clarify, we borrow terminology from photography called Right-Reading and Wrong-Reading. In photography, the original image is defined as Right-Reading and the mirror of the original image is called Wrong-Reading.

In photolithography, we define the original design pattern you supply (whatever that may be) as Right-Reading and the mirror image of the design pattern as Wrong-Reading.

To tell us the mask parity you want, we need to know both the image parity (right-reading or wrong-reading) and the frame of reference (chrome-up or chrome-down).

Optical Density: What DOES that number mean?

8/11/2015

If you hold a chrome mask up to a light, you can vaguely see the light shining through the chrome, much like the light leaking through a solar eclipse filter or welding goggles.

The purpose of the metallic coating on a photomask, such as chrome, is to attenuate the transmission of light enough that photoresist on the other side will not be activated. We want the coating to be thick enough to attenuate most of the light, but we also want it as thin as possible to get the best dimensional control on the mask since the thinner the chrome, the less etching is required.

Technically, optical density is the amount of attenuation -- or gradual intensity loss -- that occurs when light passes through an optical component. Mathematically, optical density is a logarithmic scale of how much light is transmitted through the absorber material:  OD = Log (Power transmission factor).

A photomask will typically have a base layer of chrome between 80 to 100nm thick (not including the chrome oxide on top of it) to achieve an optical density of 3.0 in the UV spectrum.

Mask Challenges at the 13.5nm wavelength

4/16/2015

One of my favorite mask industry analysts is Mark Lapedus at SemiconductorEngineering. In this article, he poses the question: If we solve the EUV source problem, achieve reasonable yields of EUV photoblanks with reflective 40-layer stacks of MoSi, and have a viable pellicle to keep airborne contaminants off the reticle plane, how are we going to inspect these masks?

March Promotion: Free Shipping in US

2/28/2015

Receive free 2-3 day shipping to any address in the United States when you spend $500 or more, all month long. Simply enter coupon MARCHMADNESS during checkout.

Custom Reticle Layout for ASML

2/25/2015

In addition to 1X masks for contact and proximity aligners, we also build reticles for 4X and 5X steppers. This client gave us a gds-II design file consisting of four layers. Complying with the reticle design guide for this specific stepper type, we laid out the four layers on a single reticle in both negative and positive tones and added the appropriate ASML alignment fiducials and barcode.

If you need help with your reticle layout, just ask. As long as we know your stepper make and model, we can help you with the appropriate fiducials, marks, barcodes, pellicles, stepper job, and composition.

Mask Design Engineer

1/19/2015

If you are have a head for programming and CAD, like working with multiple layers of abstraction, and are willing to relocate to the great state of Texas, please let us know of your interest.