A metal oxide film-forming composition including a tertiary alkyloxycarbonyloxy group-containing aromatic hydrocarbon ring-modified fluorene compound represented by Formula (1) below; metal oxide nanoparticles surface-treated with a capping agent; and a solvent. In the formula, ring Z.sup.1 represents an aromatic hydrocarbon ring, R.sup.1a and R.sup.1b each independently represents a halogen atom, a cyano group, or an alkyl group, R.sup.2a and R.sup.2b each independently represents an alkyl group, R.sup.3a, R.sup.3b, R.sup.4a, R.sup.4b, R.sup.5a, and R.sup.5b each independently represents an alkyl group having 1 to 8 carbon atoms, k1 and k2 each independently represents an integer of 0 or more and 4 or less, and m1 and m2 each independently represents an integer of 0 or more and 6 or less

##STR00001##

A metal oxide film-forming composition including a tertiary alkyloxycarbonyloxy group-containing aromatic hydrocarbon ring-modified fluorene compound represented by Formula (1) below; metal oxide nanoparticles surface-treated with a capping agent; and a solvent. In the formula, ring Z.sup.1 represents an aromatic hydrocarbon ring, R.sup.1a and R.sup.1b each independently represents a halogen atom, a cyano group, or an alkyl group, R.sup.2a and R.sup.2b each independently represents an alkyl group, R.sup.3a, R.sup.3b, R.sup.4a, R.sup.4b, R.sup.5a, and R.sup.5b each independently represents an alkyl group having 1 to 8 carbon atoms, k1 and k2 each independently represents an integer of 0 or more and 4 or less, and m1 and m2 each independently represents an integer of 0 or more and 6 or less

##STR00001##

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a flexible photo-patterned mask. The method includes a) coating a photoresist composition on a substrate to form a photoresist film, b) exposing the photoresist film to pattern the photoresist film, c) developing the patterned photoresist film, and d) curing the developed photoresist film to form a patterned layer having a plurality of tapered openings.

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a flexible photo-patterned mask. The method includes a) coating a photoresist composition on a substrate to form a photoresist film, b) exposing the photoresist film to pattern the photoresist film, c) developing the patterned photoresist film, and d) curing the developed photoresist film to form a patterned layer having a plurality of tapered openings.

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask blanks, methods for their manufacture and production systems therefor are disclosed. The EUV mask blanks comprise a substrate; a multilayer stack of reflective layers on the substrate; a capping layer on the multilayer stack of reflecting layers; an absorber layer on the capping layer, the absorber layer comprising an antimony-containing material; and a hard mask layer on the absorber layer, the hard mask layer comprising a hard mask material selected from the group consisting of CrO, CrON, TaNi, TaRu and TaCu.

A photomask layout includes: a substrate region; a lower stepped region at a region of the substrate region; and a pattern region at least partially crossing the lower stepped region and including at least one notch portion at an area overlapping the lower stepped region. A method of forming a pattern is also provided.

A photomask layout includes: a substrate region; a lower stepped region at a region of the substrate region; and a pattern region at least partially crossing the lower stepped region and including at least one notch portion at an area overlapping the lower stepped region. A method of forming a pattern is also provided.

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to an exposure pattern alteration software application which manipulates exposure polygons having lines with angles substantially close to angles of symmetry of a hex close pack arrangement, which suffer from long jogs. Long jogs present themselves as high edge placement error regions. As such, the exposure pattern alteration software application provides for line wave reduction by serrating polygon edges at affected angles to reduce edge placement errors during maskless lithography patterning in a manufacturing process.

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to an exposure pattern alteration software application which manipulates exposure polygons having lines with angles substantially close to angles of symmetry of a hex close pack arrangement, which suffer from long jogs. Long jogs present themselves as high edge placement error regions. As such, the exposure pattern alteration software application provides for line wave reduction by serrating polygon edges at affected angles to reduce edge placement errors during maskless lithography patterning in a manufacturing process.

Methods and systems for IC photomask patterning are described. In some embodiments, a method includes inserting a dummy region in an IC design layout, the IC design layout includes an active region, and the active region and the dummy region is separated by a first distance. The method further includes performing one or more operations on the IC design layout, and the active region and the dummy region is separated by a second distance substantially less than the first distance. The method further includes performing a dummy region size reduction on the IC design layout to increase the second distance to a third distance substantially greater than the second distance, and the third distance is substantially greater than a minimum feature size to be patterned by a photolithography tool. The method further includes forming a photomask using the IC design layout.