Chapter 2: Lithography Short type questions 1. What is a Layout, in IC manufacturing? 2. What is a mask? 3.

Briefly describe the basic lithographic process 4. What are positive and negative resists? 5. What are light field and dark field masks? 6. Explain the difference between contact, proximity and projection printing. 7. Define resolution 8. What is numerical aperture? 9. What are the main resolution enhancement techniques (RET)? 10. What is the use of anti reflective coating (ARC) in lithography? 11. What is depth of focus? 12. Why is it not possible to obtain good resolution and large depth of focus? 13. What are alignment marks? Give examples with schematics. 14. What are partial fields and full fields? Show schematics for both. 15. What is immersion lithography?\

Long type questions 1. Explain the difference between flat file and hierarchial layout file 2. Describe the mask making process 3. Describe the lithographic process in detail 4. What is the difference between a stepper and a scanner? Describe the scanning process. 5. Describe the processes using dark field and light field masks, along with the positive and negative resists. What are the advantages of positive resists? Explain with schematics 6. Describe the optical proximity correction (OPC) technique, with schematics 7. Describe the method of using ARC in lithography to minimize standing waves

8. Explain the method of achieving high resolution using phase shift mask (PSM) 9. Describe the method of using focus exposure matrix in a wafer to determine the focus and exposure margins 10. Explain the problems with partial field chips. 11. Describe EUV and X Ray lithography along with their disadvantages