Patent ID: 7026076

Claim:
A method of patterning photoresist on a semiconductor wafer comprising: providing a semiconductor substrate; forming a semiconductor mask, the semiconductor mask comprising: a mask substrate; a reflecting layer overlying the mask substrate for reflecting light from the semiconductor mask; an absorber stack selectively formed overlying the reflecting layer, the absorber stack having a plurality of layers, an upper layer of the absorber stack that is opposite the reflecting layer comprises a predetermined metal; and a multiple layer anti-reflective coating overlying the upper layer of the absorber stack, the multiple layer anti-reflective coating comprising adjoining layers that respectively have nitrogen, oxygen and nitrogen combined with the predetermined metal of the upper layer of the absorber stack; projecting incident radiation on the semiconductor mask; reflecting the incident radiation from reflective portions of the reflective mask as reflected radiation; and illuminating the photoresist on the semiconductor wafer with the reflected radiation.