Stress reduction of gold absorber patterns on x-ray masks

A resonance frequency measurement technique has been used to measure the stress at temperature of plated gold films on x-ray mask membranes over the temperature range of 90–525 K. Room temperature tensile stress increases are observed after above room temperature anneals. Stress relaxations are measured after liquid nitrogen cools. The tensile stress increases and the stress relaxations depend upon the microstructure of the plated films. Focused ion beam imaging shows that grain growth is the dominant mechanism for the tensile stress increases observed for fine grained as-plated gold films.