The SEMATECH Berkeley MET pushing EUV development beyond 22-nm half pitch
Microfield exposure tools (METs) play a crucial role in the development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) resists and masks, One of these tools is the SEMATECH Berkeley 0.3 numerical aperture (NA) MET, Using conventional illumination this tool is limited to approximately 22-nm half pitch resolution. However, resolution enhancement techniques have been used to push the patterning capabilities of this tool to half pitches of 18 nm and below, This resolution was achieved in a new imageable hard mask which also supports contact printing down to 22 nm with conventional illumination. Along with resolution, line-edge roughness is another crucial hurdle facing EUV resists, Much of the resist LER, however, can be attributed to the mask. We have shown that intenssionally aggressive mask cleaning on an older generation mask causes correlated LER in photoresist to increase from 3.4 nm to 4,0 nm, We have also shown that new generation EUV masks (100 pm of substrate roughness) can achieve correlated LER values of 1.1 nm, a 3x improvement over the correlated LER of older generation EUV masks (230 pm of substrate roughness), Finally, a 0.5-NA MET has been proposed that will address the needs of EUV development at the 16-nm node and beyond, The tool will support an ultimate resolution of 8 nm half-pitch and generalized printing using conventional illumination down to 12 nm 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:
- 983263
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-3405E; TRN: US201014%%443
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: SPIE advanced lithography, San Jose, CA, February 21-25, 2010
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Microfield exposure tool enables advances in EUV lithography development
Pushing EUV lithography development beyond 22-nm half pitch