Title:
Understanding the effects of photoacid distribution homogeneity and diffusivity on critical dimension control and line edge roughness in chemically amplified resists
Understanding the effects of photoacid distribution homogeneity and diffusivity on critical dimension control and line edge roughness in chemically amplified resists
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Author(s)
Lee, Cheng-Tsung
Lawson, Richard A.
Henderson, Clifford L.
Lawson, Richard A.
Henderson, Clifford L.
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Abstract
Resist critical dimension (CD)
control and line edge roughness (LER)
reduction has been one of the
most challenging issues for sub-100 nm feature patterning in integrated circuit manufacturing.
Among those factors dominating CD and LER, photoacid distribution homogeneity and diffusivity
are major elements which are correlated to resist material design and have a direct impact on the
lithography performance. In this work, a mesoscale stochastic model has been applied to investigate
the joint effect of photoacid distribution homogeneity and diffusivity on resist lithography
performance. Simulation results suggest that the high photoacid generator
(PAG)
loading and low
photoacid diffusivity provided by polymer bound-PAG resist systems can provide superior
lithography performance as compared to traditional blended-PAG resists, which is in good
agreement with our previous experimental characterization of polymer bound-PAG resists. The
results also suggest that resist image blur is proportional to the square root of the product of
photoacid concentration generated at the line edge and the photoacid diffusion coefficient. LER was
observed to be proportional to the product of the standard deviation of the extent of deprotection
along the nominal line edge and the reciprocal of the gradient of the deprotection profile along the
resist line edge.
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Date Issued
2008-11
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Article