Stable E-beam metrology on ArF resist for advanced process control

Chih-Ming Ke; Anthony Yen; Jason C. Yee; Mico Chu; Steven Fu; Eros Huang; Debbie Yeh

doi:10.1117/12.474260

24 July 2002 Stable E-beam metrology on ArF resist for advanced process control

Chih-Ming Ke, Anthony Yen, Jason C. Yee, Mico Chu, Steven Fu, Eros Huang, Debbie Yeh

Proceedings Volume 4690, Advances in Resist Technology and Processing XIX; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.474260
Event: SPIE's 27th Annual International Symposium on Microlithography, 2002, Santa Clara, California, United States

Abstract

We studied the effect of ArF resist shrinkage under electron bombardment during ebeam metrology and also the effect of resist shrinkage on the after etch CD. The traditional approach is to reduce the electron energy and dose to minimize resist shrinkage, often at the cost of reduced precision and image quality. We found that resist trimming by high-density plasma etcher (ion density about 10¹²cm^-3) can improve the stability of resist under ebeam. Exposed to beams of 600V and 300V accelerating voltage, fresh photoresist CD shrinkage was reduced by ~70% and ~50% after resist trimming in the etcher. The effect of resist trimming is similar to that of e-beam curing. More interestingly, after etch and clean of the wafer, no difference in average CD value was found between area exposed to ebeam measurement and area that were not measured. This suggests that the resist trimming step in the normal etching process may overwhelm resist shrinkage effect caused by ebeam metrology. The implication is that the key selection criteria for stable ebeam metrology on ArF resist is a beam that produces consistent shrinkage, not minimum average shrinkage.

Citation Download Citation

Chih-Ming Ke, Anthony Yen, Jason C. Yee, Mico Chu, Steven Fu, Eros Huang, and Debbie Yeh "Stable E-beam metrology on ArF resist for advanced process control", Proc. SPIE 4690, Advances in Resist Technology and Processing XIX, (24 July 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.474260

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