Immersion defectivity study with volume production immersion lithography tool for 45 nm node and below

Nakano, K.; Nagaoka, Shiro; Yoshida, Masato; Iriuchijima, Yasuhiro; Fujiwara, Tomoharu; Shiraishi, Kenichi; Owa, Soichi

doi:10.1117/12.772270

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Because a coating process is eliminated, a major source of defects is removed, resulting in the better defectivity. 3 Recent results have shown imaging is no longer a concern as well, 4 and these resists are expected to be introduced to production processes in the near future. …”

Section: Local Fill Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent performance results of Nikon immersion lithography tools

Hazelton

Shiraishi

Wakamoto

et al. 2008

Optical Microlithography XXI

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Nikon's production immersion scanners, including the NSR-S609B and the NSR-S610C, have now been in the field for over 2 years. With these tools, 55 nm NAND Flash processes became the first immersion production chips in the world, and 45 nm NAND Flash process development and early production has begun. Several logic processes have also been developed on these tools. This paper discusses the technical features of Nikon's immersion tools, and their results in production.

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Section: Local Fill Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent performance results of Nikon immersion lithography tools

Hazelton

Shiraishi

Wakamoto

et al. 2008

Optical Microlithography XXI

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“…Also, higher throughputs and reduced defects are necessary. Topcoat-less hydrophobic resists provide this possibility [2]. …”

Section: -3topcoat-less Resistmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To perform this sequence, a bevel rinse system was developed. [2] In the bevel rinse system, the thinner is sprayed to the back side of spinning wafer and is controlled by adjusting the flow along wafer back side to wafer apex by centrifugal force and surface tension. It is important to control the FECH at a required position.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of film cut position at wafer bevel for effective immersion lithography process

Matsumaro¹,

Seki²,

Kato³

2009

Advances in Resist Materials and Processing Technology XXVI

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In ArF immersion lithography process, material surface and wafer bevel hydrophobicity is an important factor in minimizing defects and water droplet residue. The application of topcoat and topcoat-less materials has been reported to increase hydrophobicity. The hydrophobicity of wafer bevel plays an important role in the effective inhibition of the immersion fluid from leaking to the wafer backside. The hydrophobicity at the wafer bevel can be optimized through the optimization of the film edge cut height (FECH), which is defined as the distance from the film surface down to the film cut edge at the wafer bevel. Special bevel rinse modules have been introduced in track systems to control FECH with a high degree of accuracy. In this work, various types of FECH were analyzed and measured using a newly developed inspection system. Based on these results, the quantification of the FECH for all the materials analyzed was made possible.It was found that FECH changed depending on the bevel rinse condition applied. For example, wafer rotation and bevel rinse flux significantly influence FECH. These results show the possibility of controlling the FECH for optimization.

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“…Here, we investigated the relationship between defects and resist hydrophobicity. It is known that resin gets more hydrophobic, blob type defects increases [9,10]. The proposed mechanism of defects formation is shown in Figure 5.…”

Section: Defect Improvementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel EUV Resists Materials for 16nm HP and beyond

Sakai¹,

Shiratani²,

Fujisawa³

et al. 2014

J. Photopol. Sci. Technol.

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Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is a candidate for the manufacturing of semiconductor devices at the 22 nm half pitch node and below. EUV lithography requires high performance resist with limited outgassing property. The key challenge for EUV resist is the simultaneous requirement of ultrahigh resolution (R), low line edge roughness (L) and high sensitivity (S) for lines and spaces (LS) features. To achieve high sensitivity, containing fluorine atom is one of the popular methods because the fluorine atom absorbs EUV light strongly. However, when the resist polymer has fluorine atom, the contact angle (CA) of the resist becomes high. It is difficult to rinse high CA resist so the containing fluorine atom have a problem of defects. In this paper, we will report the relationship of line edge roughness and acid diffusion length and the method to diminish defects caused by high CA. We achieved good resolution and LER improvement by controlling acid diffusion length. Moreover, we found the relationship of the number of defects and the structure of the monomers containing fluorine units.Keywords: EUV 16nm HP, Fluorine resin, Short acid diffusion length PAG, Rinse, Defect 1.IntroductionExtreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography that extends photolithography to extreme shorter wavelength (13.5 nm) is capable to achieve sub 20 nm half pitch resolution by single exposure [1]. Therefore, EUV lithography is the leading candidate to succeed 193 nm immersion lithography. However EUV lithography presents new challenges in nature of the EUV radiation and requires development of new infrastructure which is different from traditional optical lithography system. EUV exposure will be performed under vacuum condition with reflective type photo mask instead of transmitting type photo mask since most of the materials absorb 13.5 nm radiation light. The source power of EUV light is still low. So EUV resist materials with ultrahigh resolution (sub-20nm HP) and high sensitivity is required for EUVL applications. To improve EUV resist lithography performance, many research groups were focused on the development of EUV resist with new and novel materials [2][3][4]. We have developed new resist materials such as short acid diffusion length PAG, silicon type under layer, nd molecular resist and etc [5,6]. To achieve minimum resolution, acid diffusion length (ADL) must be controlled. We have already demonstrated the relation between ADL and resist lithography performance. To achieve high sensitivity EUV resist absorption should be improved. Incorporating atoms which have high EUV absorption to EUV resist is one of the most attractive methods to improve EUV resist absorbance. Fluorine chemistry is one of the well-known and relatively simple process to be introduced to the resist material. However, resist containing resin with fluorine atom also shows hydrophobicity and the contact angle of these resist become high. Rinsing high contact angle resist is difficult during development step and causes defects. In this paper, we will discuss combinat...

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Immersion defectivity study with volume production immersion lithography tool for 45 nm node and below

Cited by 13 publications

References 1 publication

Recent performance results of Nikon immersion lithography tools

Recent performance results of Nikon immersion lithography tools

Characterization of film cut position at wafer bevel for effective immersion lithography process

Novel EUV Resists Materials for 16nm HP and beyond

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