Patent ID: 7829471

Claim:
A method of fabricating a photomask, comprising: transferring a substrate in a processing system having a first processing chamber and a second processing chamber coupled to a transfer chamber having a vacuum environment to the first processing chamber, the substrate comprising a film stack having a quartz layer, chromium layer disposed on the quartz layer, a hardmask layer disposed on the chromium layer, and a patterned photoresist layer formed on the hardmask layer; etching the hard mask layer using the patterned photoresist layer as an etch mask in the first processing chamber; etching the chromium layer using the patterned hard mask layer as an etch mask in the second processing chamber; removing the hard mask layer in-situ the second processing chamber; forming a second patterned photoresist layer on the chromium layer; etching apertures through the chromium layer to expose the quartz layer using the second patterned photoresist layer as an etch mask; and etching the quartz layer through the apertures formed through the chromium layer to form a quartz phase shift photomask.