Modeling of acid catalyzed resists with electron beam exposure

Abstract

The aggressive scaling in critical dimensions, coupled with the increasing use of subresolution features in optical proximity correction (OPC), dictates that maskwriters should have at their disposal electron beam resists capable of printing 100-nm OPC features on 280-nm design rule masks (70-nm features on the wafer). There is a need to survey commercial chemically amplified resists for use as mask making resists, and for completeness, such a survey would require that each resist be compared with an optimized resist process. To accomplish this task in a acceptable time period we have chosen to perform electron beam lithography modeling to quickly identify the resist process combinations that will lead to superior resist performance. We have used the technique of combining electron beam resist modeling with lithography to screen chemically amplified resists for use in electron beam mask making. This was accomplished by comparing experimentally determined resist sensitivities and profiles with those predicted from ProBeam /3D lithography modeling software.

Hybrid optical: electron-beam resists

“…Chemically amplified resists are, of course, widely used at 193 and 248 nm, and some chemically amplified resists have been employed with e-beams as well. 1,2 However, hybrid lithography would require a common window of chemical composition, formulation, and processing of resists used in the two exposure modalities. These issues have been addressed for e-beam writing combined with 248-nm resists, 3,4 and this paper extends the work to 193-nm resists.…”