System, method and program product for photomask surface treatment
A method of manufacturing a photomask including the steps of providing a photomask blank, inspecting the photomask blank to determine presence of one or more defects in the photomask blank, wherein the one or more defects comprise one or more photomask substrate defects, and compensating for the one or more photomask substrate defects by roughening one or more surface portions of the photomask substrate.
1 . A method of manufacturing a photomask, comprising:
(A) providing a photomask blank comprising a glass substrate;
(B) inspecting the photomask blank to determine presence of one or more defects in the glass substrate; and
(C) compensating for the one or more defects by roughening one or more surface portions of the glass substrate, the roughened one or more surface portions configured to remain on the glass substrate and scramble directionality of an optical beam transmitted through the glass substrate during a photolithographic process using a photomask made from the photomask blank.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of compensating comprises roughening one or more surface portions of the glass substrate by at least one of grinding or polishing.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of compensating comprises roughening one or more surface portions of the glass substrate by an oxidation process.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of compensating comprises roughening one or more surface portions of the glass substrate by a film coating process.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of compensating comprises roughening one or more surface portions of the glass substrate by a particle coating process.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of compensating comprises roughening one or more surface portions of the glass substrate by wet etching with an acid etchant.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of compensating comprises roughening one or more surface portions of the glass substrate by ionization.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of compensating comprises roughening one or more surface portions of the glass substrate by sputtering.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the photomask is a large-size photomask for use in a lithography process to manufacture a flat panel display (FPD).
10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of processing the photomask blank.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the step of processing comprises at least one of etching the photomask blank or exposing the photomask blank to an electron beam or laser energy.
12 . A method of making a flat panel display comprising irradiating light from an optical energy source through a large-size photomask made in accordance with the method of claim 10 and onto a glass plate substrate in a photolithographic process so that the at least one circuit pattern is transferred from the large-size photomask to the glass plate substrate.
13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the flat-panel display is a liquid crystal display, an active matrix liquid crystal display, an organic light emission diode, a light emitting diode, a plasma display panel, or an active matrix organic light emission diode.