E-beam curing effects on the etch and CD-SEM stability of 193-nm resists

Padmanaban, Munirathna; Alemy, Eric L.; Dammel, Ralph R.; Kim, Woo-Kyu; Kudo, Takanori; Lee, Sang-Ho; McKenzie, Douglas; Orsi, Aldo; Rahman, Dalil; Chen, Wan-Lin; Sadjadi, Reza; Livesay, William R.; Ross, Matthew F.

doi:10.1117/12.474262

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…1 Compared to commercial 248 nm resists, 193 nm photoresists exhibit significant roughness especially under the etch conditions for dielectrics, such as silicon dioxide and silicon nitride. [2][3][4] For instance, while AFM analysis of DUV resists exhibit the mean roughness (R a ) of ~1 nm after bulk oxide etch, R a 's of 193 nm resists were found to be in the range of 4 to 7 nm depending on the chemical structure of the resist backbone. This seemingly minor increase in PER with 193 photoresists can cause the formation of pinholes and the loss of pattern integrity during the etch process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Mechanistic understanding of post-etch roughness in 193-nm photoresists

Bae¹,

Barclay²,

Bolton³

et al. 2003

Advances in Resist Technology and Processing XX

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Surface roughness of 193 nm resists after a dry etch process is one of the critical issues in the implementation of 193 nm lithography to sub-100 nm technology nodes. Compared to commercial 248 nm resists, 193 nm photoresists exhibit significant roughness especially under the etch conditions for dielectrics, such as silicon dioxide and silicon nitride. While AFM analysis of DUV resists exhibit the mean roughness (R a ) of ~1 nm after blanket oxide etch, R a 's of 193 nm resists were found to be in the range of 4 to 7 nm depending on the chemical structure of the resist backbone. In an effort to develop 193 nm resists with improved post-etch roughness (PER), we carried out exhaustive screening of the available 193 nm resist platforms using bulk oxide etch followed by AFM analysis of the resist surface. Benchmarking results indicated that cyclic olefin copolymers, prepared by vinyl addition copolymerization of norbornene derivatives, exhibit significantly better PER than (meth)acrylic copolymers, cyclic olefin/maleic anhydride (COMA) copolymers, or COMA/(meth)acrylic copolymers (COMA hybrid). In this paper, are addressed various factors that influence PER of 193 nm resists and presented solutions to overcome etch inferiority with 193 nm resists for the real device fabrication.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Mechanistic understanding of post-etch roughness in 193-nm photoresists

Bae¹,

Barclay²,

Bolton³

et al. 2003

Advances in Resist Technology and Processing XX

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…[13][14][15][16]18,[20][21][22][23][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] For double imaging generality, any pattern distortions need to be assessed for severity and possible correction within a given set of design rule constraints. To date, the majority of double imaging implementations have been demonstrated using highly regular structures such as pitch-split line/space arrays or crossed-grid contact hole arrays.…”

Section: Impacts On Double Imaging Utilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous investigations have described corner distortions arising during resist cure but have not characterized these in detail 22,23. …”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Cure-induced photoresist distortions in double patterning

Wallow

Rayasam

Yamaguchi

et al. 2009

J. Micro/Nanolith. MEMS MOEMS

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Many processes are under evaluation as simplifications to current double patterning methods. Reduction in process complexity and cost may be achieved by use of track-based photoresist stabilization methods that eliminate one etch step by allowing a second resist to be patterned over a first resist. Examples of stabilization methods using numerous curing processes have been reported. At least some resist shrinkage during stabilization appears to be generally observed for these methods. We evaluate the link between shrinkage and three-dimensional pattern distortions at line ends and elbow corners using experimental and simulation-based methods. A 172-nm UV resist curing process was used to produce controlled shrinkage ranging from 5% to 30%: shrinkage was correlated with resist distortions. At cure dose sufficient to stabilize the resist, shrinkage of approximately 23% results in measured line-end pullback and elbow displacement of approximately 16% and 13% of nominal linewidth respectively, when measured at resist half-height. Finite element analysis of resist beam structures produces shrinkage distortions that are in good qualitative and semiquantitative agreement with these measurements and thus appears to provide a provisionally general and useful method for predicting pattern distortions that arise during cure-based resist stabilization methods used in double imaging.

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“…8 In terms of KrF resist and ArF resist, UV light, 9 VUV light, 10 electron beam, 11 and ion implantation 12,13 were investigated. Novolac resist was hardened by UV cure and ion implantation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ion implantation as insoluble treatment for resist-stacking process

Nakamura

Shibata

Rikimaru

et al. 2010

J. Micro/Nanolith. MEMS MOEMS

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With regard to the resist-stacking process, it was proposed that the implantation of ions whose acceleration voltage was below 50 kV could make the lower-layer resist insoluble for the upper-layer resist-patterning process. However, the lower-layer resist pattern is observed to be removed after the upper-layer resist patterning in a pattern. In another type of a pattern, there are caves in the bottom of the lowerlayer resist pattern after the upper-layer resist patterning. From the calculation of the projected range of the ions, it is found that the ions cannot reach the bottom of the lower-layer resist pattern, and therefore the bottom of the lower-layer resist is not hardened. The removal is due to the dissolution of the bottom in the lower-layer resist during the development of the upper-layer resist pattern. When the acceleration voltage of the implanted ions is set so that the projected range of the ions is larger than the resist thickness, the lower-layer resist can be made effectively insoluble for the upper-layer resist-patterning process. The ion-implanted pattern can be used as the etching mask. Moreover, the ions can be prevented from penetrating the film to be etched by adjusting the thicknesses of stacked antireflective coating. © 2010 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

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E-beam curing effects on the etch and CD-SEM stability of 193-nm resists

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Mechanistic understanding of post-etch roughness in 193-nm photoresists

Mechanistic understanding of post-etch roughness in 193-nm photoresists

Cure-induced photoresist distortions in double patterning

Ion implantation as insoluble treatment for resist-stacking process

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