Prevention of Resist Pattern Collapse by Resist Heating during Rinsing

Abstract

A novel resist hardening method is discussed for preventing resist pattern collapse (bending and breaking). In this method, a cross‐link‐type chemically amplified resist is heated during rinsing. This heating increases the cross‐link ratio of the resist, thus hardening the resist pattern before drying. Using this method, the critical aspect ratio of 0.15 μm line and space patterns is improved from 5 to 6.7.