Extreme ultraviolet Talbot interference lithography.

Periodic nanopatterns can be generated using lithography based on the Talbot effect or optical interference. However, these techniques have restrictions that limit their performance. High resolution Talbot lithography is limited by the very small depth of focus and the demanding requirements in the fabrication of the master mask. Interference lithography, with large DOF and high resolution, is limited to simple periodic patterns. This paper describes a hybrid extreme ultraviolet lithography approach that combines Talbot lithography and interference lithography to render an interference pattern with a lattice determined by a Talbot image. As a result, the method enables filling the arbitrary shaped cells produced by the Talbot image with interference patterns. Detailed modeling, system design and experimental results using a tabletop EUV laser are presented.