Influence of the baking process for chemically amplified resist on CD performance

Sasaki, Shiho; Ohfuji, Takeshi; Kurihara, Masaaki; Inomata, Hachiro; Jackson, Curt; Murata, Yoshio; Totsukawa, Daisuke; Tsugama, Naoko; Kitano, Naoki; Hayashi, Naoya; Hwang, David H.

doi:10.1117/12.468089

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…As mentioned already, the PEB sensitivity of NEB22, which still continues at the setpoint of the bake process, i.e. after the ramp-up period [10], this corner-to-center CD-error may be effectively compensated by an appropriate corner-to-center temperature profile during the entire bake process.…”

Section: Peb Sensitivitymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…However, even the APB 5500 bake system has a remaining certain temperature characteristics during the temperature ramp-up in the hotplate, which may result in small CD-errors preferentially at the mask corners [6]. But nCARs showing such a PEB sensitivity provide as well a means to compensate these CD-errors: superimposing an appropriate non-uniform temperature profile during the PEB process, instead of using an absolutely uniform temperature profile [7][8][9][10]. This profiled PEB process, automatically calculated and optimized, has the potential to improve the global CD uniformity significantly.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Automated CD-error compensation for negative-tone chemically amplified resists by zone-controlled post-exposure bake

et al. 2003

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Negative-tone chemically amplified resists (nCARs) like NEB22 are promising candidates for the 90 and 65 nm technology node and next-generation lithography. For these resists, e-beam exposure and post-exposure bake (PEB) are most critical processes, since these resists show a strong sensitivity to post-exposure delay (PED) in vacuum during ebeam writing of about 0.5 nm/h, and in air while waiting for PEB. Further, such resists show a strong PEB temperature sensitivity of up to 8 nm/K. The multi-zone hotplate approach of the APB 5500 bake system with its superior temperature uniformity results in excellent global CD-uniformity already. However, all kinds of systematic large area effects of processes, e.g. blank coat/bake, exposure, PED, the PEB itself, etch loading, etc. may transfer in additional systematic CD-errors. Such systematic, repeatable errors can be reduced during PEB by superimposing an appropriate non-uniform temperature profile onto the regular, optimized uniform bake temperature profile, thereby compensating for such CD-non-uniformities. The required temperature profile can automatically be calculated from a suitable global CD measurement, determined in a typical process flow. The compensation of CD-errors resulting from vacuum PED and hotplate temperature characteristics is demonstrated here, by using automated temperature profile calculation. The global CD uniformity was improved significantly, the achieved results show a typical reduction of about 20-30%, from a total global range of about 9nm to about 6-7nm on leading-edge production photomasks.

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Section: Peb Sensitivitymentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%