0.33 Numerical Aperture [NA) EUV Lithography has been introduced in high volume manufacturing since the beginning of this decade. This was initiated by the logic foundries at the 7nm technology node, focusing on a few layers in the back-end-of-line. In the following nodes, more layers were converted to EUV but very soon also EUV double patterning became necessary. The logic step to avoid double patterning was to increase the NA from 0.33 to 0.55.
Although EUV resists and masks are being used in production today, further patterning infrastructure improvements are mandatory to enable High Volume Manufacturing [HVM] with high NA EUV. In this presentation, the preparations for EUV resists, EUV underlayers, EUV metrology, EUV masks and pellicles will be explained and their readiness assessed.
Imec has already evaluated on test chip vehicles with different patterning approaches: 193i SAQP (Self-Aligned Quadruple Patterning), LE3 (triple patterning Litho Etch), tone inversion, EUV SE (Single Exposure) with SMO (Source-mask optimization). Following the run path in the technology development for EUV insertion, imec N7 platform (iN7, corresponding node to the foundry N5) is developed for those BEoL layers.
In this paper, following technical motivation and development learning, a comparison between the iArF SAQP/EUV block hybrid integration scheme and a single patterning EUV flow is proposed. These two integration patterning options will be finally compared from current morphological and electrical criteria.
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