An apparatus for containing a substrate and a method of manufacturing the apparatus are provided. The apparatus for containing a substrate includes: a base having a periphery and an upward-facing top horizontal planar surface with a plurality of contact elements, the contact elements being used for engaging the substrate to hold the substrate upon the upward-facing top horizontal planar surface, an upward-facing frame-like support surface extending from the upward-facing top horizontal planar surface and surrounding the contact elements at a position proximate to the periphery of the base; and a cover having a downward-facing frame-like support surface being in large-area contact with the upward-facing frame-like support surface to define a cavity for containing the substrate between the base and the cover. The downward-facing and upward-facing frame-like support surfaces in contact with each other are not at the same level as the upward-facing top horizontal planar surface.

The invention provides a reticle pod, in particular the reticle pod with wear parts. The reticle pod is a large-size reticle pod and includes a vertical accommodation space for accommodating reticles. The reticle pod mainly includes a cover and a box. The box is used to combine with the cover to form an internal space in order to accommodate reticles. Guiding members are disposed outside the box, and the guiding members can help guide the relative position of the box and the cover. The contact surfaces of the box contacting the upright reticles are disposed with at least two slots, and each of the slot is configured with at least one wear part. The wear part module further includes a first wear part disposed on the upper portion of the slot and a second wear part disposed on the lower portion of the slot.

A reticle inspection system and a method of handling a reticle in a reticle inspection system are provided. The reticle inspection system includes an active reticle carrier and an inspection tool. The reticle is disposed on the active reticle carrier, and the inspection tool is configured to determine an orientation of the reticle when the active reticle carrier is disposed on a reticle stage. The active reticle carrier is movable between a loading station and the reticle stage and is configured to rotate the reticle to reorient the reticle based on the orientation of the reticle while the active carrier is disposed on the reticle stage.

A method comprises cleaning a surface of a reticle by irradiating the surface of the reticle in a first exposure device for a predetermined irradiation time. A layout pattern of the reticle is projected onto a photo resist layer of a wafer in a second exposure device by an EUV radiation. The photo resist layer is developed to generate a photo resist pattern on the wafer. A surface of the wafer is imaged to generate an image of the photo resist pattern on the wafer. The generated image of the photo resist pattern is analyzed to determine critical dimension uniformity (CDU) of the photo resist pattern. The predetermined irradiation time is adjusted until the determined CDU satisfies a predetermined criterion.

A reticle carrier described herein is configured to quickly discharge the residual charge on a reticle so as to reduce, minimize, and/or prevent particles in the reticle carrier from being attracted to and/or transferred to the reticle. In particular, the reticle carrier may be configured to provide reduced capacitance between an inner baseplate of the reticle carrier and the reticle. The reduction in capacitance may reduce the resistance-capacitance (RC) time constant for discharging the residual charge on the reticle, which may increase the discharge speed for discharging the residual charge through support pins of the reticle carrier. The increase in discharge speed may reduce the likelihood that an electrostatic force in the reticle carrier may attract particles in the reticle carrier to the reticle. This may reduce pattern defects transferred to substrates that are patterned using the reticle, may increase semiconductor device manufacturing quality and yield, and may reduce scrap and rework of semiconductor devices and/or wafers.

One illustrative device disclosed herein includes a FOUP (Front Opening Unified Pod) storage bin, a plurality of pins positioned on a first surface of the FOUP storage bin, wherein the plurality of pins are adapted to engage and register with the FOUP, and a conversion plate. In one illustrative embodiment, the conversion plate includes a plate with a front surface and a back surface, a reticle pod receiving structure on the front surface that at least partially bounds a reticle pod receiving area on the front surface, and a pin engagement structure on the back side that is adapted to engage the plurality of pins on the first surface of the FOUP storage bin.

A reticle is pre-heated prior to an exposure operation of a semiconductor substrate lot to reduce substrate to substrate temperature variations of the reticle in the exposure operation. The reticle may be pre-heated while being stored in a reticle storage slot, while being transferred from the reticle storage slot to a reticle stage of an exposure tool, and/or in another location prior to being secured to the reticle stage for the exposure operation. In this way, the reduction in temperature variation of the reticle in the exposure operation provided by pre-heating the reticle may reduce overlay deltas and misalignment for the semiconductor substrates that are processed in the exposure operation. This increases overlay performance, increases yield of the exposure tool, and increases semiconductor device quality. Moreover, pre-heating the reticle prior to securing the reticle to the reticle stage for the exposure operation reduces and/or minimizes the impact that the pre-heating has on throughput and processing times of the exposure tool.

The present invention discloses a reticle storage pod including an outer pod which includes an outer cover and an outer base. The outer cover and the outer base can be coupled to securely accommodate one of a first inner pod and a second inner pod that are differently structured in the outer pod. The first inner pod and the second inner pod are for individually accommodating a reticle. The outer cover is provided with at least one first hold-down mechanism and at least one second hold-down mechanism, and the first hold-down mechanism and the second hold-down mechanism respectively act on a cover of the first inner pod and a cover of the second inner pod that are differently structured.

A method of treating a surface of a reticle includes retrieving a reticle from a reticle library and transferring the reticle to a treatment device. The surface of the reticle is treated in the treatment device by irradiating the surface of the reticle UV radiation while ozone fluid is over the surface of the reticle for a predetermined irradiation time. After the treatment, the reticle is transferred to an exposure device for lithography operation to generate a photo resist pattern on a wafer. A surface of the wafer is imaged to generate an image of the photo resist pattern on the wafer. The generated image of the photo resist pattern is analyzed to determine critical dimension uniformity (CDU) of the photo resist pattern. The predetermined irradiation time is increased if the CDU does not satisfy a threshold CDU.

Reticle containers include a cover and a baseplate, with magnetic particle traps included in at least one of the cover or the baseplate. The cover and baseplate each include sealing surfaces, and at least one of the sealing surfaces includes magnetic material that can be attracted by the magnetic particle traps. The sealing surfaces can be selected such that particulate generated by wear at the sealing surfaces is primarily the magnetic material. The magnetic particle traps can further be configured to be cleaned by reduction of the attraction of the particulate matter to the magnetic particle traps.