Development of the sputtering yields of ArF photoresist after the onset of argon ion bombardment

Abstract

Modification of an advanced ArF excimer lithographic photoresist by 400 eV Ar ion irradiation was observed in situ in real time using both infrared spectroscopy and a quartz microbalance sensor. The photoresist sputtering yields had a characteristic behavior; the sputtering yields were higher than unity at the beginning, until an ion dose of 2 × 1016 ions cm−2. Thereafter, the yields decreased immediately to almost zero and remained constant with the yield at zero until a dose of approximately 4 × 1016 ions cm−2 was reached. At larger doses, the yields increased again and reached a steady-state value of approximately 0.6. This development of the sputtering yield after the onset of ion bombardment is explained by an ion-induced modification of the photoresist that includes preferential sputtering of individual groups, argon ion implantation and the generation of voids. All these effects must be taken into account to assess line-edge-roughness on a photoresist subjected to highly energetic ion irradiation.

Characterization of Chiral Nanostructured Surfaces Made via Colloidal Lithography

“…Ion beam etching was performed in a vacuum beam reactor (Figure 1) equipped with an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma source acting as ion gun (TecTra Gen2) [25,26]. The source was set to send argon ions at an energy of 500 eV and an ion flux of about 100 µA/cm 2 , as measured using a Faraday cup.…”

Randomness of Polymer Microstructure in the Resist Film as Shot Noise

“…Therefore, removing the part with low carbon density using argon sputtering was tested. With newly specializing spattering condition [5][6][7], the low-density part was removed successfully, and an object like a random fingerprint appeared (Figure 5). It looks like a fingerprint pattern using Directed Self-Assembly (DSA).…”

Particle beam experiments for the analysis of reactive sputtering processes in metals and polymer surfaces

“…The combination of particle sources sending quantified beams of reactive species, metal vapor, and intense Ar + beams, together with the in situ diagnostics by FTIR and QCM, makes this reactor an excellent tool to study elementary surface processes in specific applications where intense ion fluxes are present. [17][18][19][20][21] In order to show the capabilities of this beam setup, we consider two important applications in plasma technology: (1) poisoning in reactive magnetron sputtering of aluminum targets and (2) plasma pre-treatment of the polymers polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET):…”