Unraveling the effect of resist composition on EUV optics contamination

Pollentier, Ivan; Neira, Iago; Goethals, Anne-Marie; Gronheid, Roel; Tarutani, Shinji; Tamaoki, Hiroshi; Tsubaki, Hideaki; Takahashi, T.

doi:10.1117/12.881214

Cited by 7 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…24) The rapid advancement of fundamental research on resist outgassing continues to shed light on this issue. [24][25][26] New clues on how to minimize optics contamination from the viewpoint of resist platform design have also been found. 24,25) However, more effort is necessary in increasing the processing capability of these test systems in meeting the required testing throughputs for HVM.…”

Section: Resist Outgassingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, owing to cost and availability issues, alternative light sources such as electron beam (EB) and low-power EUV have been proposed. [24][25][26]137) There is a consensus between device manufacturers and resist material suppliers involved in EUVL to utilize WS testing. [24][25][26]137) However, other analysis methods such as quadropole mass spectrometry (QMS), gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS), and pressure-rise tests continue to be applied for the unique advantages they provide.…”

Section: Resist Outgassingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[24][25][26]137) There is a consensus between device manufacturers and resist material suppliers involved in EUVL to utilize WS testing. [24][25][26]137) However, other analysis methods such as quadropole mass spectrometry (QMS), gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS), and pressure-rise tests continue to be applied for the unique advantages they provide. 135,136) For example, GC-MS is the most effective in qualitative analysis of the released resist outgassing species.…”

Section: Resist Outgassingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[24][25][26][134][135][136][137] However, they need special consideration in EUVL where exposure tool systems are kept under significantly clean high-vacuum conditions to maintain a high EUV light intensity at the wafer surface. Thus, intensity loss due to optics contamination from resist outgassing needs to be minimized or eliminated.…”

Section: Resist Outgassingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[20][21][22][23] Lastly, fundamental research activities on another EUVL issue resist outgassing, is presented. [24][25][26] 2. Trade-off Relationship Figure 1 shows the typical dependences of the line width (LW) and LER on exposure dose and half-pitch (nominal LW).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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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Section: Resist Outgassingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resist Outgassingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resist Outgassingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resist Outgassingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Resist Materials and Processes for Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography

Itani¹,

Kozawa

2012

Jpn. J. Appl. Phys.

166

153

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Outgassing and photochemical studies of photosensitive films upon irradiation at 13.5 nm

Shao

Sung

et al. 2012

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Materials, Processing, Measurement, and Phen

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Neutral outgassed species from polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), a model resist (denoted RRR), and three underlayer thin films have been characterized and their absolute outgassing rates determined using a quadrupole mass spectrometer following irradiation at 13.5 nm. The radiation, which was in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) energy range at 13.5 nm, was delivered from the 08A1-beamline at the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center in Taiwan. The side chains of acryl-type polymers that are vulnerable to fragmentation and outgassing upon EUV irradiation were characterized and the important outgassed species (H 2 O and H 3 O þ ) were identified from the Si-containing photosensitive materials. The authors propose that the Si-OH formed on the Si-containing surfaces upon EUV irradiation likely undergoes subsequent incremental H 2 O and H 3 O þ outgassing upon cumulative EUV irradiation. A benchmark comparison revealed that the absolute outgassing rates of PMMA, RRR, and a Si-containing underlayer sample determined in this work were consistent with values previously reported in the literature. Thus, we have effectively demonstrated that the Taiwanese facility is capable of evaluating absolute resist outgassing rates, making it one of a limited number of EUV resist evaluation sites worldwide. The authors have provided direct evidence that the extent of ionic and neutral outgassing from 80, 100, and 125 nm PMMA and RRR films is not thickness-dependent. The authors have further demonstrated that the absolute outgassing rates of PMMA and RRR films of various thickness and two oxy-hydrocarbon underlayer samples correlated strongly with the 13.5 nm photoabsorption (r abs ) and the structural toughness [double-bond-equivalence-per-backbone (DBEPB)] of the polymers. The authors revealed that the formula r abs /DBEPB could be used as a generic metric to predict the resistance of photosensitive films to EUV irradiation for the oxy-hydrocarbons in this work and four previously studied photoresists.

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Novel EUV resist materials design for 14nm half pitch and below

et al. 2014

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Polymers with a different Tg and activation energy were prepared to clarify influences of acid diffusion on resolution at 15 nm half-pitch (hp) and 14 nm hp using a EUV micro-field exposure tool (MET) at LBNL. Resolution on such a narrow pattern was limited by collapse and pinching. Clear relationship between pinching numbers and polymer Tg indicates that acid diffusion is one of major contributors on the pinching. In addition, polymers with a low thermal activation energy (Ea) on deprotection were effective for reducing pinching. This is probably originated from its high chemically amplification character even in low post-exposure bake (PEB) temperature to obtain both large chemical contrast and short acid diffusion. On the other hand, a good correlation between a cleanable outgassing amount and Ea indicates trade-off relationship between outgassing and resolution. Advantages of n-butyl acetate (nBA) developer have been investigated in viewpoint of dissolution uniformity. Surface roughness of a non-patterned resist film at half-exposed area, which was well correlated with LWR, was measured by AFM as indicator of uniformity in development process. To avoid any differences in resist chemistry other than development process, cross linking negative tone resist was applied for this study. The surface roughness obtained by nBA, which is conventional negative-tone imaging (NTI) developer, was 32 % lower than that obtained by 2.38 % TMAH solution. NTI resist system with a nBA developer and optimized resist reduced LWR from 4.8 nm to 3.0 nm in comparison with conventional positive tone resist with a 2.38 % TMAH developer. In addition, advantage on semi-dense trench patterning was well defined. New EUV sensitizer with 1.15 times higher EUV absorption resulted in 1.15 times higher acid yield by EUV exposure. Lithography performance of the new EUV sensitizer has been investigated by MET at SEMATECH Albany. Sensitivity was indeed improved from 20 mJ/cm 2 to 17 mJ/cm 2 according to the acid yield increase, but resolution was significantly degraded.

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Unraveling the effect of resist composition on EUV optics contamination

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Resist Materials and Processes for Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography

Resist Materials and Processes for Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography

Outgassing and photochemical studies of photosensitive films upon irradiation at 13.5 nm

Novel EUV resist materials design for 14nm half pitch and below

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