A new class of low bake resists for 193-nm immersion lithography

Ratnam Sooriyakumaran; Richard DiPietro; Hoa Truong; Phillip Brock; Robert Allen; Luisa Bozano; Irene Popova; Wu-Song Huang; Rex Chen; Mahmoud Khojasteh; Pushkara Rao Varanasi

doi:10.1117/12.772947

15 April 2008 A new class of low bake resists for 193-nm immersion lithography

Ratnam Sooriyakumaran, Richard DiPietro, Hoa Truong, Phillip Brock, Robert Allen, Luisa Bozano, Irene Popova, Wu-Song Huang, Rex Chen, Mahmoud Khojasteh, Pushkara Rao Varanasi

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6923, Advances in Resist Materials and Processing Technology XXV; 69230C (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.772947
Event: SPIE Advanced Lithography, 2008, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

We report here, new non-acetal containing low bake (PEB < 100° C ) resists that are suitable for immersion lithography. These resists are based on novel low activation energy (low-E_a) tertiary ester protecting groups. One major obstacle to imaging in the sub-50 nm regime using chemically amplified resists is the diminished image integrity in the pattern ("image blur") due to photo-generated acid diffusion into unexposed regions. Low processing temperatures are predicted to decrease the degree of photoacid diffusion and, in turn, decrease the image blur. Even though many low bake resist compositions have previously been reported, they are all based on acetal/ketal protecting groups. Unfortunately, these materials require a stoichiometric amount of water for the photoacid-catalyzed deprotection reaction to proceed. It is usually assumed that the water for the reaction comes from the environment in the bake station. However, fluctuations in humidity could affect the performance of the resist. Furthermore, acetal/ketal-based resists generally lack storage stability. For these reasons, acetal/ketal-based resists did not receive widespread acceptance in the lithography community. With the introduction of water based immersion lithography, acetal/ketal-based resists are expected to have further performance difficulties. Therefore, we targeted the development of new "low blur" resists for 193nm lithography that do not contain acetal/ketal protecting groups.

Citation Download Citation

Ratnam Sooriyakumaran, Richard DiPietro, Hoa Truong, Phillip Brock, Robert Allen, Luisa Bozano, Irene Popova, Wu-Song Huang, Rex Chen, Mahmoud Khojasteh, and Pushkara Rao Varanasi "A new class of low bake resists for 193-nm immersion lithography", Proc. SPIE 6923, Advances in Resist Materials and Processing Technology XXV, 69230C (15 April 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.772947

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