Novel EUV resist materials for 16nm half pitch and EUV resist defects

Abstract

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is a candidate for the manufacturing of semiconductor devices at the 22 nm half pitch node and below. EUV lithography requires high performance resist with limited outgassing property. The key challenge for EUV resist is the simultaneous requirement of ultrahigh resolution (R), low line edge roughness (L) and high sensitivity (S) for lines and spaces (LS) features. To achieve high resist sensitivity EUV resist absorbance should be increased. Resin containing fluorine atom is one of the most attractive methods to improve absorbance level of EUV resist because the fluorine atom absorbs EUV light strongly. However, resist hydrophobicity (or high contact angle) also increase due to presence of fluorine atoms in the resist polymer. It is difficult to rinse high CA resist during development process so the resist containing polymer with fluorine atom may produce additional defects. In this paper, we will report the relationship between line edge roughness and acid diffusion length. We will also show the method to diminish defects caused by high contact angle (CA) resist. We achieved good resolution and LER improvement by controlling acid diffusion length. Moreover, we found the relationship of the number of defects and the structure of the monomers containing fluorine units.