Characterization of line-edge roughness in photoresist using an image fading technique

Pawloski, Adam R.; Acheta, Alden; Lalovic, Ivan; Fontaine, Bruno M. La; Levinson, Harry

doi:10.1117/12.537103

Cited by 58 publications

(44 citation statements)

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“…Extensive results on the effects of resist variation and the role of image quality have been reported for EUV by Shumway et al [7] and Cao et al [8], and for DUV by Palowski et al [9] and Williamson et al [10]. Important new experimental work on acid generation has been reported for electron beams by Yamamoto et al [11] and for EUV by Brainard et al [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Shot noise models for sequential processes and the role of lateral mixing

Neureuther

Pease

Yuan

et al. 2006

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena

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Shot-noise in electron-beam and EUV exposure fundamentally limits the useful sensitivity of resists. Here the exposure, amplification and deprotection of chemically amplified resists are treated as a sequence of statistical events to determine the effect of shot noise. Noise among processes is additive and a sequential Poisson process is used to illustrate the 'acid bottleneck' that occurs when less than one acid electron is generated per input electron. Lateral mixing, due to effects such as electron scattering and acid diffusion, are accounted for in a Binomial sorting model that shows the effect is simply a function of the total number of quanta reaching the voxel irrespective of their path.Electron exposure is estimated to generate on average one acid every 3.8, 21 and 36 nm along the trajectories of 5, 50 and 100 KeV electrons. Acid generation appears well correlated with energy deposition, at about 22 eV/acid required for EUV and electron exposure, or three times the DUV level. The model was validated by observing the fraction of small (24 nm and 32 nm across) contacts that cleared as a function of exposure dose at 100 KeV. Approximately 4,500 electrons were EIPBN 05 revised June 6, 2006 2 required to clear, independent of contact size. However, the slope was indicative of a process with only 50 effective events possibly owing to resist surface effects. Circular dissolution smoothing and mechanical fracture are suggested as speculative sources for the near feature size correlation length of the line-edge roughness.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Shot noise models for sequential processes and the role of lateral mixing

Neureuther

Pease

Yuan

et al. 2006

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena

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“…Experimental studies on the exposure dose dependence of LER demonstrated that LER decreases with increasing exposure dose. [44][45][46][47] However, it cannot be reduced below a certain value (3-4 nm) when exposure dose is increased. 50,51) A common explanation of this lower limit of LER upon high-dose exposure is that it is of material origin, namely, it is associated with the molecular size and/ or high-order interaction of polymers.…”

Section: Limit Of Lermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[44][45][46][47][48][49] Equations (2) and (3) indicate that LER is inversely proportional to the square root of exposure dose. Experimental studies on the exposure dose dependence of LER demonstrated that LER decreases with increasing exposure dose.…”

Section: Limit Of Lermentioning

confidence: 99%

Resist Materials and Processes for Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography

Itani¹,

Kozawa

2012

Jpn. J. Appl. Phys.

166

153

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Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation, the wavelength of which is 13.5 nm, is the most promising exposure source for next-generation semiconductor lithography. The development of EUV lithography has been pursued on a worldwide scale. Over the past decade, the development of EUV lithography has significantly progressed and approached its realization. In this paper, the resist materials and processes among the key technologies of EUV lithography are reviewed. Owing to its intensive development, the resist technology has already closely approached the requirements for the 22 nm node. The focus of the development has shifted to the 16 nm node and beyond. Despite the trade-off relationships among resolution, line edge roughness/line width roughness, and sensitivity, the capability of resist technology will go beyond the 16 nm node.

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“…1, the schematic representation of EUV light source, reflective mask, condenser optics, and reflective projection optics can be modeled into the structures of the mask simulation (angle of incidence, electric field calculation, absorber shape, and multilayer) and projection illumination (numerical aperture (NA), σ, dose, defocus, and aberrations) [6,7]. Resist processes are modeled in stages of prebake (Dill parameters (A and B), time, and temperature), exposure (Dill parameters (A, B, and C) and dose), post-exposure bake (diffusion coefficient, time, and temperature), and development (rate function time and surface inhibitor) [8,9].…”

Section: Line Edge Roughness Of Maskmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling and Simulation of Line Edge Roughness for EUV Resists

Kim¹

2014

JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science

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Abstract-With the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the performance limit of chemically amplified resists has recently been extended to 16-and 11-nm nodes. However, the line edge roughness (LER) and the line width roughness (LWR) are not reduced automatically with this performance extension. In this paper, to investigate the impacts of the EUVL mask and the EUVL exposure process on LER, EUVL is modeled using multilayer-thin-film theory for the mask structure and the Monte Carlo (MC) method for the exposure process. Simulation results demonstrate how LERs of the mask transfer to the resist and the exposure process develops the resist LERs.

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Characterization of line-edge roughness in photoresist using an image fading technique

Cited by 58 publications

References 0 publications

Shot noise models for sequential processes and the role of lateral mixing

Shot noise models for sequential processes and the role of lateral mixing

Resist Materials and Processes for Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography

Modeling and Simulation of Line Edge Roughness for EUV Resists

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