Impact of water and top-coats on lithographic performance in 193-nm immersion lithography

Kishimura, Shinji; Gronheid, Roel; Ercken, Monique; Maenhoudt, Mireille; Matsuo, Takahiro; Endo, Masayuki; Sasago, Masaru

doi:10.1117/12.598532

Cited by 10 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…[2][3][4][5][6]10,17 Presoaking or pre-rinsing with water is demonstrated as an important process to suppress the leaching of resist components during the following contacts with water because the significant amount soluble components are extracted by the first immersion in water. Therefore the presoaking dependence of QCM traces of a poly(hydroxystyrene) film was shown in Fig.…”

Section: Presoaking Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] In immersion lithography, an immersion liquid is introduced between the exposure optics and a resist film. When the resist swells a little after contact with the immersion liquid, or water at 193-nm immersion lithography, the swelling can affect resist performance to bring out interfacial effects, such as T-topping, footing, and undercutting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[2][3][4][5][6][8][9][10] Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) method is one of the most popular technique in measuring the film thickness change after contact with the liquid. [10][11][12][13][14] It gives the details of dissolution behavior of resist films during the development and the information on film structures and interfacial structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diffusion mechanism of water for immersion lithography

Toriumi

Matsubara

Otoguro³

et al. 2006

SPIE Proceedings

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The interaction between water and resist film is a very important subject to be studied in order to establish the feasibility of 193-nm immersion lithography. The water diffusion into 193nm resist films was measured by using Quartz crystal microbalance method and it showed the slow saturation after the quick water uptake in the early stage of dipping in water. Diffusion coefficient was approximated by polynomial function of diffusion time. The water diffusion was well elucidated by the single variable of diffusion coefficient, which reflects the conditions of bake or pre-soak process and molecular properties such as molecular weight. The analysis is shown to be useful to evaluate the diffusion mechanism and to develop materials for immersion lithography.

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Section: Presoaking Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diffusion mechanism of water for immersion lithography

Toriumi

Matsubara

Otoguro³

et al. 2006

SPIE Proceedings

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“…The other issue is the immersion-specific defects like nanobubble, wataremark and so on 7 . Topcoat materials are expected to provide a reasonable solution to these issues, and new topcoat materials were reported by several research groups [8][9][10][11] . For example, solvent removable type topcoat material has been proposed.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Improvement of watermark defect in immersion lithography: mechanism of watermark defect formation and its reduction by using alkaline-soluble immersion topcoat

et al. 2006

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ArF (193nm) immersion lithography is considered as the most promising next generation technology and significant effort to establish the immersion process for semiconductor device HVM is currently focused on the tool, material and process development. One of the serious issues in the immersion process for the commercial semiconductor production is the immersion-specific defects. Typical immersion-specific defects are nanobubble, watermark (W/M) defect, and degradation of pattern profile caused by resist components leaching. The nanobubbles, which exist in the immersion medium such as water, deform the optical image, and then cause the pattern profile degradation. Small water droplet left on the resist film after scanning exposure causes W/M defect. Leaching of resist component induces insufficient de-protection reaction at the resist surface region, then cause the T-top pattern profile or bridge type defect.Among these immersion-specific defects, the effective countermeasure against W/M defect has not been established yet, because the mechanism of W/M defect formation is not fully figured out. From the model experimental result, we have found that W/M defect formation depends on the characteristics of photoresist and topcoat materials. Then we have developed the new immersion topcoat which is soluble into aqueous TMAH developer, and this material provides practical solution for W/M defect reduction. In this paper, we will report the mechanism of W/M defect formation which is related to the characteristics of photoresist and topcoat material. Also W/M defect reduction process by using alkaline soluble immersion topcoat will be discussed in detail.

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“…Topcoat materials are expected to present a reasonable solution to these issues. Recently, new topcoat materials have been developed [8][9][10][11] . For example, a solvent soluble type topcoat material has been proposed.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Immersion topcoat and resist material improvement study by using immersion scanner

Nakagawa

Hoshiko²,

Suzuki³

et al. 2006

SPIE Proceedings

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ArF (193nm) immersion lithography is considered as the most promising next generation technology and significant effort to establish the immersion process for semiconductor device HVM is currently focused on the tool, material and process development. Immersion lithography enables the design of hyper numerical aperture (NA>1) lens systems by filling the gap between lens and resist with an immersion medium. Water is the ideal medium for 193nm immersion lithography and the water immersion system could reach up to 1.3 NA, giving higher resolution capability. There are several immersion specific requirements such as scanning properties and leaching characteristics. High speed scanning is necessary for mass production, so the water has to follow the lens and move on the resist film at considerably high speed.Direct water contact with resist film can cause the leaching of some resist components e.g. PAG. This leaching phenomenon could cause lithographic performance degradation and lens damage. Leaching and scanning phenomena are quite complicated and difficult to estimate the amount exactly with chemical analysis tools, so it is important to check the lithographic performance and scanning capability with a real immersion scanner. We have done many immersion experiments on various resists and top-coat materials using a Nikon immersion scanner (EET: Engineering Evaluation Tool). From the results, it was found that the properties of topcoat materials were closely related with immersion characteristics, such as scanning speed and defect formation. Specifically, defectivity evaluation results revealed that PAG leaching suppression was important for not only preventing lens damage but also reducing defect formation in the immersion process.

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Impact of water and top-coats on lithographic performance in 193-nm immersion lithography

Cited by 10 publications

References 5 publications

Diffusion mechanism of water for immersion lithography

Diffusion mechanism of water for immersion lithography

Improvement of watermark defect in immersion lithography: mechanism of watermark defect formation and its reduction by using alkaline-soluble immersion topcoat

Immersion topcoat and resist material improvement study by using immersion scanner

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