A lithographic and etching study on EUV contact hole patterning for stochastic process mitigation towards advanced device scaling

D. De Simone; P. Foubert; R. Fallica; A. Dauendorffer; K. Nafus; N. Oikawa; H. Oka; K. Kato

doi:10.1117/12.2614165

21 June 2022 A lithographic and etching study on EUV contact hole patterning for stochastic process mitigation towards advanced device scaling

D. De Simone, P. Foubert, R. Fallica, A. Dauendorffer, K. Nafus, N. Oikawa, H. Oka, K. Kato

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume PC12051, Optical and EUV Nanolithography XXXV; PC120510P (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2614165
Event: SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning, 2022, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

In the last years, the continuous efforts on the development of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) have allowed to push the lithographic performance of the EUV photoresists on the ASML NXE:3400 full field exposure tool, however, stochastic resist roughness, local critical dimension uniformity (LCDU) and pattern defectivity at nano-scale are still the major limiting factors of the lithographic process window of EUV resist when looking at sub-40nm pitches for both linespace (LS) and contact hole (CH) applications, especially in the low exposure dose regime [1]. To be effective during the lithographic EUV resist screening evaluation phase for such tight pitches, imec has implemented since 2018 [2] additional metrology analysis after resist development inspection (ADI) to further quick feedback on the quantification of nano-failures (nano-bridges, broken lines, merging or missing contacts) induced by a stochastic EUV patterning regime, and thus to improve the resist design at lithographic step in a faster manner. In this work, we have further extended the examination of the resist performance introducing additional metrology analysis after pattern transfer in a silicon nitride (SiN) substrate. We present the characterization results on 40nm and 36nm pitch staggered dense contact holes looking at both lithographic and etching knobs to mitigate the patterning process stochastic issues, confirming that the holistic litho-etch approach is an important and necessary step in the development path of EUV advanced patterning applications towards high volume manufacturing and high-NA EUV lithography.

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D. De Simone, P. Foubert, R. Fallica, A. Dauendorffer, K. Nafus, N. Oikawa, H. Oka, and K. Kato "A lithographic and etching study on EUV contact hole patterning for stochastic process mitigation towards advanced device scaling ", Proc. SPIE PC12051, Optical and EUV Nanolithography XXXV, PC120510P (21 June 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2614165

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KEYWORDS

Etching

Photoresist processing

Optical lithography

Lithography

Stochastic processes

Extreme ultraviolet lithography

Extreme ultraviolet

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