Resist blur and line edge roughness

Abstract

A straightforward analytic model of resist line edge roughness is presented which predicts all the known scaling laws as well as the shape of the experimentally seen frequency content or power spectrum of the roughness. The model implies there are strong basic limitations to achieving, simultaneously, low roughness, low dose and high resolution in any standard chemically amplified resist process. A simple model of how roughness maps to device performance is also presented.