Performance of negative tone chemically amplified fullerene resists in extreme ultraviolet lithography

Abstract

Abstract. With extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) emerging as one of the top contenders to succeed from optical lithography for the production of next generation semiconductor devices, the search for suitable resists that combine high resolution, low line edge roughness (LER) and commercially viable sensitivity for high volume production is still ongoing. One promising approach to achieve these goals has been the development of molecular resists. Here we report our investigations into the EUV lithographic performance of a molecular fullerene resist showing resolution down to 20-nm half-pitch with interference lithography with a LER of >5 nm and sensitivity of about 20 mJ∕cm 2 . © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

Chemically amplified phenolic fullerene electron beam resist

“…The crosslinking reaction mechanism of the tBOC protected material IM-MFPT12-2 is still under investigation, but we speculate a two-step reaction in which the tBOC protection group is rst removed catalytically by the PAG generated acid, leaving a phenol, which then crosslinks cationically with the epoxy. 38,41 The additional deprotection step might result in the lower sensitivity and higher contrast of IM-MFPT12-2 compared with IM-MFP12-3.…”

Front Matter: Volume 9425

“…The synthetic route is similar to that previously described for the fullerene resist [6] but the addition of the fullerene material is omitted during the process.…”

Towards 11nm half-pitch resolution for a negative-tone chemically amplified molecular resist platform for extreme-ultraviolet lithography

“…In the course of our work on molecular fullerene resists for EUVL we isolated a new resist molecule that enables sub-16 nm patterning, herein referred to as xMT. The synthetic route is similar to that previously described for the fullerene resist [6] but the addition of the fullerene material is omitted during the process.…”