Raj Sakamuri

Resist component leaching in 193 nm immersion lithography

The leaching of ionic PAGs from model resist films into a static water volume is shown to follow first order kinetics. From the saturation concentration and the leaching time constant, the leaching rate at time zero is obtained which is a highly relevant parameter for evaluating lens contamination potential. The levels of leaching seen in the model resists generally exceed both static and rate-based dynamic leaching specifications. The dependence of leaching on anion structure shows that more hydrophobic anions have lower saturation concentration; however, the time constant of leaching increases with anion chain length. Thus in our model system, the initial leaching rates of nonaflate and PFOS anions are identical. Investigation of a water pre-rinse process unexpectedly showed that some PAG can still be leached from the surface although the pre-rinse times greatly exceeded the times required for saturation of the leaching phenomenon, which are expected to correspond to complete depletion of leachable PAG from the surface. A model is proposed to explain this phenomenon through re-organization of the surface as the surface energy changes during the air/water/air contact sequence of the pre-rinse process.

Surface roughness investigation of 157- and 193-nm polymer platforms using different etch conditions

A series of different fluorinated polymer platforms used for early and current 157-nm photoresists is investigated with regard to blanket etch properties and surface roughness. Besides methacrylic-based polymers applied for 193-nm lithography, fluorine containing norbornene homopolymers, fluorinated cycloolefines, and tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) norbornene copolymers are chosen. Etch rates in different plasmas used for several applications, such as poly, SiN mask open, and selective/nonselective SiO2 etch, are determined and compared to standard 193-nm platforms currently used for DRAM manufacturing. Looking at various base resins, significant differences can be found using HBr- or Cl2-based poly etch conditions and various fluorocarbon-based oxide etch chemistries. Up to 2.4 times higher etch rates in Cl2 and the different CxFy oxide etch recipes are observed for the highly fluorinated cycloolefines and the TFE norbornenes, showing a strong correlation between fluorine content and etch rate. After stress by different etch conditions, the polymer surfaces are characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Surprisingly, the surface roughness of the methacrylic platforms and the norbornene base resin (determined by AFM) are found to be substantially higher than that of the highly fluorinated platforms. These results can directly be correlated to pictures obtained by optical methods (SEM).

Effect of hard bake process on LER

Line-edge roughness (LER) continues to be one of the biggest challenges as the CD size shrinks down to sub 100 nm. It is shown that resist components as well as illumination conditions play a big role. Influence of resist components in both 248 and 193nm chemically amplified resist formulations has been reported but the root cause is not fully understood and may be platform or even specific formulation dependent. This paper attempts to tackle the issue from the processing side. Effects of a simple hard bake process on the LER were studied. In the hard bake process, a given resist pattern was typically baked close to the glass-transition temperature after the development process. LER improved dramatically due to melting down of the rough surface. However, the wall angle of the edge lines also started to degrade at the optimum hard bake temperature. Studies on the effects of polymer Tg, hard bake temperature and time and the issues of the process are discussed.

Study of barrier coats for application in immersion 193-nm lithography

We will describe our barrier coat approach for use in immersion 193 nm lithography. These barrier coats may act as either simple barriers providing protection against loss of resist components into water or in the case of one type of these formulations which have a refractive index at 193 nm which is the geometric mean between that of the resist and water provide, also top antireflective properties. Either type of barrier coat can be applied with a simple spinning process compatible with PGMEA based resin employing standard solvents such as alcohols and be removed during the usual resist development process with aqueous 0.26 N TMAH. We will discuss both imaging results with these materials on acrylate type 193 nm resists and also show some fundamental studies we have done to understand the function of the barrier coat and the role of differing spinning solvents and resins. We will show LS (55 nm) and Contact Hole (80 nm) resolved with a 193 nm resist exposed with the interferometric tool at the University of New Mexico (213 nm) with and without the use of a barrier coat.

Study of barrier coats for protection against airborne contamination in 157-nm lithography

We summarize our work on devising protective barrier coats for use against airborne contamination when using tert-butoxycarbonylmethyl (BOCME) capped fluoroalcohol resist resins as part of our strategy to develop a 157 nm resist platform. We will describe how a barrier coat (AZ EXP FX Coating 145) consisting of a fluoro-cyclopolymer formulation, soluble in aqueous developer, can improve the post-exposure delay (PED) latitude of 157 nm resist resists exposed under conditions or airborne contamination. Specifically, a 20 nm thick coating of AZ EXP FX Coating 145 gives a PED latitude for L/S features of at least 10 min under condition of airborne amine contamination (10 ppb amine contamination). The barrier coat, AZ EXP FX coating 145 is formulated in a solvent which is compatible with resist film coated from typical 193 nm resist spin casting solvents. Moreover, it can be easily removed as part of the normal aqueous base development scheme, no extra post-apply bake or stripping step is required.

Study of 157 nm resists with full field exposure tools

A detailed account will be given of work done on the Micrascan VII (NA 0.75) at INVENT in Albany with AZ EXP X20 and AZ EXP X25 resist systems based upon BOCME protected fluoroalcohol resins. These resins were examined either with a high or low level of formulated photoacid generator (PAG). Our evaluations done both with binary and alternating phase shift mask exposures. It was found in our initial studies done at relatively high amine levels (1-2 ppb) that AZ EXP X25 X with low PAG gave the best performance.