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This paper shows the suitabilily of i-line photolithography for production at 0.30 tm. The process performance is demonstrated through the use of off-axis illumination, high NA projection lens, and a state of the art photoresist system.The minimum required depth of focus for a suitable 0.30 tm process is derived as 0.95 tm over at least a 10% process window. This will result in a 0.60 m common corridor over a square 22 mm imaging feId.In addition to the dense and isolated lines, a preliminary investigation of contact hole performance using chrome and phase shift masks was completed.

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With the introduction of full field step&scan systems, 193 nm technology development is currently being accelerated and resists are used closer to their final area of application, i.e. under realistic conditions of lens aberrations, stray-light and wafer coverage. In this paper, the lithographic performance of advanced 193 nm resist materials has been evaluated on a full field step&scan system. Single layer and hi-layer resist processes are compared in terms of performance and complexity. Very similar lithographic performance is observed for both the single layer and the hi-layer approaches at 130 nm. Optimization of illumination conditions (NA, sigma) is investigated as a way to enlarge processing windows and to reduce iso-dense bias. The application of a PSM illustrates the extendibility of 193 nm lithography for the 100 nm technology node. In general, significant progress in resist performance has been made but further improvements are needed before 193 nm resists will reach the maturity level of today's state-of-the-art 248 nm resists.

This paper presents an evaluation on the 0.15 m and 0.13 tm lithographic patterning alternatives for semiconductor devices. Baseline for the evaluation is a first generation ArF step and scan exposure system with 0.63 NA projection optics. The system layout is discussed and main performance data on imaging, overlay and throughput are presented. Binary masks, and various advanced 193 nm resist systems are used to evaluate process latitudes of dense lines, isolated lines and contact holes. The manufacturing economics, expressed in Cost Of Ownership (COO), are evaluated for an ArF based production technology, and compared to critical layer KrF.