Advanced resist materials for next generation lithography

[摘要] With the advancement in technology the minimum lithographic feature size decreases more and more for every generation. The development of lithographic techniques and resist materials capable of meeting the requirements for the up- graded technology (resolution, sensitivity, roughness) started to play a trivial role. However, the issue represents a fundamental principle in lithography (the RLS trade-off) and it proves difficult to overcome. Addition of quenchers in chemically amplified resists reduces the acid diffusion length and improves the line edge roughness and increases the resolution of the patterned features, but decreases the sensitivity. The current most commonly researched approach to boost the sensitivity in organic resists is the addition of metals embedded in the molecular structure by covalent bonds. This approach was investigated in this thesis, and an extension towards high-Z organic additive compounds and high-Z cross-linkers was conducted. Furthermore as feature sizes less than 20 nm are routinely required, pattern col- lapse driven by the capillary forces upon development has become a serious limiting factor, independent of the lithography technique involved. Alongside with constantly developing the resist platforms there is also the need to improve the adhesion of the resist material to the silicon substrate, reducing pattern collapse and allowing for ultra high resolution and high aspect ratio patterning. In this thesis I will present the research I have undertaken in order to implement a resist platform suitable for next generation lithography and I will introduce and describe the new multi-trigger mechanism concept developed for this resist system. I will also present a study on active underlayes investigated for improved adhesion between the resist and the substrate.

[发布机构] University:University of Birmingham;Department:School of Physics and Astronomy

[关键词] Q Science;QC Physics