Cost-Effective Sub-20 nm Lithography: Smart Chemicals to the Rescue

Abstract

The increasing cost of the lithographic process, which is driven both by process complexity and by the increasing price of moving to smaller exposure wavelengths, makes approaches that use "smart chemicals" and "bottom up" patterning processes that employ molecular scale assembly processes ever more attractive. The technology that is closest to implementation in IC manufacturing is directed self-assembly (DSA) of block copolymers for contact hole shrink and line space multiplication. The current delays and limitations in EUV lithography provide further incentive to pursue DSA technology, which can be both complementary (such as in contact shrink) as well as a competitor (such as for fine line patterning). Current results indicate that DSA structure quality, line roughness measures, and defectivity are in a range that allows development work for integration into existing production to begin. Contact hole shrink may be closest to implementation, since its process integration is very similar to existing shrink material schemes. A first application for line frequency multiplication may be the replacement of multiple patterning processes with DSA schemes which have the potential to provide compelling cost and technical advantages.

Technological strategies for self-assembly of PS-b-PDMS in cylindrical sub-10 nm nanostructures for lithographic applications

“…Nanostructures with lower size, up to 10 nm [5], can be obtained by multiple patterning steps. Unfortunately, the multiplication of the patterning steps increases dramatically the process complexity, thus making this approach extremely expensive [6,7]. Extreme UV lithography (EUVL) [8,9] and electron beam lithography (EBL) [10,11], based on photons with wavelength of 13.5 nm and electrons, respectively, present higher resolution, leading to nanostructures with dimensions <10 nm.…”

Directed Self Assembly Materials for Semiconductor Lithography

“…A lot of work has been reported about DSA materials as sub-20nm or even sub-10nm patterning materials. DSA is expected not only as the resist materials but also as the resist support material [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. In this paper we focus on the DSA materials for lithography; block co-polymer, under layer, top coat and resist.…”

Directed Self Assembly Material Development for Fine Patterning and Pattern Repair

“…Self Aligned Double Patterning [4] for 3x nm and 2x nm. Further size reduction requires triple or quadruple patterning, and it causes huge increase of CoO and the difficulty of overlay [5] Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography has been the favorite candidate of successor of immersion ArF [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Application of DSA materials may extend immersion ArF and support the rise of EUV.…”