Don't always blame the photons: Relationships between deprotection blur, LER, and shot noise in EUV photoresists
A corner rounding metric has been used to determine the deprotection blur of Rohm and Haas XP 5435, XP 5271, and XP 5496 extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photoresists as base weight percent is varied; an experimental open platform photoresist (EH27) as base weight percent is varied; and TOK EUVR P1123 and FUJI 1195 photoresists as post-exposure bake (PEB) temperature is varied. In the XP 5435, XP 5271, XP 5496, and EH27 resist platforms, a 6 times increase in base weight percent reduces the size of successfully patterned 1:1 lines by over 10 nm and lowers intrinsic line-edge roughness (LER) by over 2.5 nm without changing deprotection blur. In TOK EUVR P1123 photoresist, lowering the PEB temperature from 100 C to 80 C reduces measured deprotection blur (using the corner metric) from 30 nm to 20 nm and reduces the LER of 50 nm 1:1 lines from 4.8 nm to 4.3 nm. These data are used to drive a lengthy discussion about the relationships between deprotection blur, LER, and shot noise in EUV photoresists. We provide two separate conclusions: (1) shot noise is probably not the dominant mechanism causing the 3-4 nm EUV LER floor that has been observed over the past several years; (2) chemical contrast contributes to LER whenever deprotection blur is large relative to the printed half pitch.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Materials Sciences Division
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 950847
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-1435E; JVTBD9; TRN: US200911%%92
- Journal Information:
- JVST B, Journal Name: JVST B; ISSN 0734-211X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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