Roughness improvement by post-development treatment of CAR for high-NA EUV lithography

Kayoko Cho; Hikari Tomori; Cong Que Dinh; Seiji Nagahara; Arisa Hara; Seiji Fujimoto; Arnaud Dauendorffer; Lior Huli; Kanzo Kato; Nathan Antonovich; Makoto Muramatsu

doi:10.1117/12.3010231

9 April 2024 Roughness improvement by post-development treatment of CAR for high-NA EUV lithography

Kayoko Cho, Hikari Tomori, Cong Que Dinh, Seiji Nagahara, Arisa Hara, Seiji Fujimoto, Arnaud Dauendorffer, Lior Huli, Kanzo Kato, Nathan Antonovich, Makoto Muramatsu

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12957, Advances in Patterning Materials and Processes XLI; 129571Q (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3010231
Event: SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning, 2024, San Jose, California, United States

Conference Poster

Abstract

Recent advancements in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography have greatly enhanced the manufacturing of fine semiconductor nodes in high volume production (HVM). With the introduction of high NA (numerical aperture) EUV, further miniaturization is expected, and it is necessary to develop lithography technology to accommodate this. Chemically amplified resist (CAR) is widely used in HVM due to their stability and advantages as metal–free resists, and adapting CAR to the High–NA EUV era has important implications. Achieving high resolution in EUV involves a trade–off between resolution, line width roughness (LWR), and sensitivity. Reducing roughness is especially important because roughness can cause pattern defects. This paper aims to reduce CAR roughness and improve the trade–off. We investigated the reduction of roughness through a post–development treatment applied to EUV–exposed patterns. To examine the influence of this post–development treatment, we performed a power spectral density (PSD) analysis of LWR. Additionally, we compared the cross–sectional shape of resist patterns before and after treatment to understand the reactions occurring within the resist. The results showed that the LWR decreased by 13.1% for 44nm line/space (L/S) pitch and 4.0% for 28nm L/S pitch after the post–development treatment. Of particular interest, the use of additional processing demonstrated the potential to reduce low–frequency roughness, which is normally very challenging. These results show the potential for the application of CAR in next–generation lithography.

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

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Kayoko Cho, Hikari Tomori, Cong Que Dinh, Seiji Nagahara, Arisa Hara, Seiji Fujimoto, Arnaud Dauendorffer, Lior Huli, Kanzo Kato, Nathan Antonovich, and Makoto Muramatsu "Roughness improvement by post-development treatment of CAR for high-NA EUV lithography", Proc. SPIE 12957, Advances in Patterning Materials and Processes XLI, 129571Q (9 April 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3010231

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