Paulina Rincon Delgadillo

Towards an all-track 300 mm process for directed self-assembly

This study modifies the authors’ previously reported directed self-assembly (DSA) process of polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) in order to meet the throughput and material-related requirements of a semiconductor manufacturing environment. It is demonstrated that all of the bottleneck steps in the authors’ DSA process, including the deposition of the cross-linkable mat and the deposition of the brush layer, can be done in minutes on a hot plate in an N2 atmosphere, which simulates the processing environment of a lithography track module. A 25-nm-pitch pattern resulting from a 4:1 density multiplication was demonstrated with a manufacturing-compatible organic solvent. A preliminary uniformity study on 300 mm wafers was also presented. The modified DSA process presents a viable solution to some of the anticipated throughput-related challenges to DSA commercialization and thus, brings integration of DSA within reach of the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

Defect reduction and defect stability in IMEC's 14nm half-pitch chemo-epitaxy DSA flow

Directed Self-Assembly (DSA) of Block Co-Polymers (BCP) has become an intense field of study as a potential patterning solution for future generation devices. The most critical challenges that need to be understood and controlled include pattern placement accuracy, achieving low defectivity in DSA patterns and how to make chip designs DSA-friendly. The DSA program at imec includes efforts on these three major topics. Specifically, in this paper the progress in DSA defectivity within the imec program will be discussed. In previous work, defectivity levels of ~560 defects/cm2 were reported and the root causes for these defects were identified, which included particle sources, material interactions and pre-pattern imperfections. The specific efforts that have been undertaken to reduce defectivity in the line/space chemoepitaxy DSA flow that is used for the imec defectivity studies are discussed. Specifically, control of neutral layer material and improved filtration during the block co-polymer manufacturing have enabled a significant reduction in the defect performance. In parallel, efforts have been ongoing to enhance the defect inspection capabilities and allow a high capture rate of the small defects. It is demonstrated that transfer of the polystyrene patterns into the underlying substrate is critical for detecting the DSA-relevant defect modes including microbridges and small dislocations. Such pattern transfer enhances the inspection sensitivity by ~10x. Further improvement through process optimization allows for substantial defectivity reduction.

Three-Tone Chemical Patterns for Block Copolymer Directed Self-Assembly

Chemical patterns for directed self-assembly (DSA) of lamellae-forming block copolymers (BCP) with density multiplication can be fabricated by patterning resist on a cross-linked polystyrene layer, etching to create guide stripes, and depositing end-grafted brushes in between the stripes as background. To date, two-tone chemical patterns have been targeted with the guide stripes preferentially wet by one block of the copolymer and the background chemistry weakly preferentially wet by the other block. In the course of fabricating chemical patterns in an all-track process using 300 mm wafers, it was discovered that the etching process followed by brush grafting could produce a three-tone pattern. We characterized the three regions of the chemical patterns with a combination of SEM, grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS), and assessment of BCP-wetting behavior, and evaluated the DSA behavior on patterns over a range of guide stripe widths. In its best form, the three-tone pattern consists of guide stripes preferentially wet by one block of the copolymer, each flanked by two additional stripes that wet the other block of the copolymer, with a third chemistry as the background. Three-tone patterns guide three times as many BCP domains as two-tone patterns and thus have the potential to provide a larger driving force for the system to assemble into the desired architecture with fewer defects in shorter time and over a larger process window.

Defect source analysis of directed self-assembly process

Abstract. As design rule shrinks, it is essential that the capability to detect smaller and smaller defects should improve. There is considerable effort going on in the industry to enhance immersion lithography using directed self-assembly (DSA) for the 14-nm design node and below. While the process feasibility is demonstrated with DSA, material issues as well as process control requirements are not fully characterized. The chemical epitaxy process is currently the most-preferred process option for frequency multiplication, and it involves new materials at extremely small thicknesses. The image contrast of the lamellar line/space pattern at such small layer thicknesses is a new challenge for optical inspection tools. The study focuses on capability of optical inspection systems to capture DSA unique defects such as dislocations and disclination clusters over the system and wafer noise. The study is also extended to investigate wafer-level data at multiple process steps and to determine the contribution from each process step and materials using defect source analysis methodology. The added defect pareto and spatial distributions of added defects at each process step are discussed.

Rectification of EUV-patterned contact holes using directed self-assembly

One critical problem with EUV patterning is the local CD variation of contact holes. The issue is especially problematic for patterning of sub-30nm hole dimensions. Although the EUV wavelength enables resolution of fine contact patterns, shot noise effects (both chemical and optical) result in high levels of CD non-uniformity. Directed self-assembly (DSA) offers the possibility of rectifying this non-uniformity. Since the resulting CD in this patterning approach is typically dictated by the polymer size, application of this technology in conjunction with an EUV-defined pre-pattern can theoretically improve the local CD uniformity. Integration approaches using both chemo- and grapho-epitaxy integration may be used to achieve DSA enabled uniformity improvement. The drawbacks and benefits of both approaches will be discussed. Finally, these types of DSA flows also enable frequency multiplication to achieve dense arrays from an initially sparse pattern. In this study, we will report on a variety of schemes to attain rectification and frequency multiplication.

Process sensitivities in exemplary chemo-epitaxy directed self-assembly integration

Directed Self Assembly (DSA) using block copolymers (BCP) has received considerable attention over the past few years as a potential complementary lithographic technique. While many are focused on adapting DSA integrations to high volume manufacturing, the key to the technology’s success lies in its ability to generate low defect patterns. The best way to drive the technology toward a zero defect solution is to understand the fundamentals of the block copolymer assembly, the interactions of the block copolymer with the underlying chemical pattern, and the evaluation of process parameters to obtain a high degree of order of the BCP morphologies. To this end, recent research has investigated numerous material, structural, and process sensitivities of an exemplary chemo-epitaxy line/space integration. Using the DSA flow implemented at imec, substrate properties, such as the geometry and chemistry, were studied and provided the first results regarding the dimensions of the nano-patterns and the energetic conditions necessary to obtain good alignment of the BCP. Additional parameters that have been explored include BCP film thickness and the bake conditions used to execute various steps of the flow. With this work, the key parameters that drive the assembly process have been identified. This will allow the definition of an optimized process window and materials for defect minimization.

Directed self-assembly of ternary blends of block copolymer and homopolymers on chemical patterns

In this work ternary blends of symmetric lamellae-forming poly(styrene-block-methyl methacrylate) block copolymer and polystyrene and PMMA homopolymers were prepared for the directed self-assembly (DSA) on chemically nanopatterned substrates using 2× density multiplication. Homopolymers with comparable molecular weights to that of the corresponding blocks in the block copolymer were used to adjust the periods of the blends. The periods of the blends increased from 38.5 to 50 nm as the volume fraction of homopolymers increased from 0 to 30%. The periods were analyzed by grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering, direct measurement from and fast Fourier transform of scanning electron microscopy images. DSA results indicate that the perfection and registration of the assembled films were mainly determined by the commensurability between the periods of the blends and the chemical patterns. Patterns with relatively small w/LS (guiding stripe width/period of chemical pattern) led to mixed structures of dot...

Progress in directed self-assembly hole shrink applications

Directed Self-Assembly (DSA) has become a promising alternative for generating fine lithographic patterns. Since contact holes are among the most difficult structures to resolve through traditional lithographic means, directed selfassembly applications that generate smaller contact holes are of particular interest to the industry. In this paper, DSA integrations that shrink pre-patterned contact holes were explored. The use of both block copolymers (BCPs)1 and blended polymer systems2 was considered. In addition, both wet3 and dry4 techniques were used to develop the central core out of the respective phase-separated morphologies. Finally, the hole patterns created through the various contact hole applications were transferred to substrates of interest with the goal of incorporating them into an IMEC 28 nm node via chain electrical test vehicle for direct, side-by-side comparison.

Inspection of directed self-assembly defects

Directed Self-Assembly (DSA) is considered as a potential patterning solution for future generation devices. One of the most critical challenges for translating DSA into high volume manufacturing is to achieve low defect density in the DSA patterning process. The defect inspection capability is fundamental to defect reduction in any process, particularly the DSA process, as it provides engineers with information on the numbers and types of defects. While the challenges of other candidates of new generation lithography are well known (for example, smaller size, noise level due to LER etc.), the DSA process causes certain defects that are unique. These defects are nearly planar and in a material which produces very little defect scattering signal. These defects, termed as “dislocation” and “disclination” have unique shapes and have very little material contrast. While large clusters of these unique defects are easy to detect, single dislocation and disclination defects offer considerable challenge during inspection. In this investigation, etching the DSA pattern into a silicon (Si) substrate structure to enhance defect signal and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) is studied. We used a Rigorous Coupled-Wave Analysis (RCWA) method for solving Maxwell’s equations to simulate the DSA unique defects and calculate inspection parameters. Controllable inspection parameters include various illumination and collection apertures, wavelength band, polarization, noise filtering, focus, pixel size, and signal processing. From the RCWA simulation, we compared SNR between “Post-SiN etch” and “Post-SiN+Si-substrate etch” steps. The study is also extended to investigate wafer-level data at post etch inspection. Both the simulations and inspection tool results showed dramatic signal and SNR improvements when the pattern was etched into the SiN+Si substrate allowing capture of DSA unique defect types.

Grazing-incidence small angle x-ray scattering studies of nanoscale polymer gratings

Grazing-Incidence Small Angle X-ray Scattering (GISAXS) offers the ability to probe large sample areas, providing three-dimensional structural information at high detail in a thin film geometry. In this study we exploit the application of GISAXS to structures formed at one step of the LiNe (Liu-Nealey) flow using chemical patterns for directed self-assembly of block copolymer films. Experiments conducted at the Argonne National Laboratory provided scattering patterns probing film characteristics at both parallel and normal directions to the surface. We demonstrate the application of new computational methods to construct models based on scattering measured. Such analysis allows for extraction of structural characteristics at unprecedented detail.