Masaki Ohashi

Inactivation technology for pitch doubling lithography

We propose novel inactivation technologies which improve resolution. Base generators have been developed, which inactivate acid by thermal treatment or exposure. This thermal inactivation technology realizes simple litho-inactivation-litho-etch (LILE) process with good fidelity. After 1st patterning, acid is inactivated by amine released from the thermal base generator under low temperature baking of less than 150°C. Just adding one simple low temperature bake process, LILE has two advantages; i) keeping high throughput, and ii) avoidance of pattern deformation. 32nm line and space (l&s) pattern is successfully delineated. The inactivation technology has been expanded to frequency doubling patterning. Photo base generator (PBG) is used to inactivate acid generated by exposure. Acid concentration in both of low and high exposed area is precisely controlled by base generation efficiency of PBG. The dual tone resist successfully delineates 32.5nm l&s pattern using 65nm l&s mask patterns with single exposure.

Focus improvement with NIR absorbing underlayer attenuating substructure reflectivity

Process dependent focus leveling errors occur in photolithography when there is unpredicted reflectivity originating from multilayer structures on the fully integrated process wafer. The typical wavelength used in optical focus sensors is in the near infrared (NIR) range which is highly transparent to most dielectric materials. Consequently, the reflected light from underlying structures perturbs the accuracy of the leveling signal reflected from resist surface. To alleviate this issue, air-gauge focus sensors have been used to measure the wafer surface topography for an in-situ calibration to correct the focus leveling error. Using an air-gauge sensor is a slow process and a throughput detractor. Therefore, an NIR-absorbing underlayer has been developed for easy insertion into existing resist coating processes. It has been demonstrated that the air-gauge sensor can be turned off without showing any degradation in leveling data or litho performance on back end of line (BEOL) integrated wafers.