Patent ID: 7826033

Claim:
In a system for fabricating a photomask, a unit configured and operable for dehydrating a layer of a chemically amplified resist situated on a photomask blank prior to patterning the resist layer, the dehydrating unit comprising: a chamber; a support for the photomask blank within the chamber, the support incorporating an adjustable element operable for heating and for cooling the resist layer on the photomask blank; and a device operable to remove nitrogen from the chamber; wherein, said dehydrating unit is separate from processing units for fabricating the photomask blank and for patterning and developing the resist layer, and in operation of said dehydrating unit the chamber is purged of nitrogen and the adjustable heating/cooling element operates to heat the chemically amplified resist layer on the photomask blank to dehydrate the resist layer and then to cool the resist layer to maintain it in a dehydrated state for a set time period within said chamber.