The success in the miniaturization of the electronic device constituents depends mostly on the photolithographic techniques. Recently, to achieve patterning at the sub-10-nm node, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography has been introduced into high volume production. Continued scaling of EUV via increased numerical aperture to achieve nodes at 3-nm and below requires the development of fundamentally new patterning materials and new characterization methods. Current EUV-resist film thicknesses are in the 20- to 40-nm range, and further thickness reduction is required for the next generation. Therefore, interfaces become exceedingly important, and the properties of the resist film would be dominated by top and bottom interfacial effects. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) combined with standing-wave excitation (SW-XPS), a fairly new method in the EUV lithography field, previously had been largely applied in multilayers and superlattices for characterizing the composition and electronic structure of buried layers and interfaces as a function of depth. We applied the SW-XPS method to organic/inorganic photoresists to provide depth-selective information on their structural and chemical conditions of as a function of temperature, EUV exposure, different underlayers, and other fundamental parameters. As a first attempt, we perform an SW-XPS feasibility study on self-assembled monolayer (SAM) films after exposure to an electron beam. By SW-XPS, we determined that the interface between the Al2O3 underlayer and the SAMs is smooth, with a mean roughness of about 0.2 nm. Moreover, we determined that the SAM chains are, on average, tilted by ∼30 deg off the sample normal. The SW-XPS results also suggest that the SAM is not a perfectly aligned and uniform monolayer, with some areas having thickness higher than a single monolayer. We demonstrated that SW-XPS can provide useful information on ultrathin materials with high potential for being used as a characterization method of organic/inorganic photoresists.
The success in the shrinking of the electronic device constituents depends mostly on the photolithographic techniques. For next generation lithography, in order to achieve the desired downscaling patterns (<10 nm), extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation must be used and new materials must be developed. Standing Wave X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (SWXPS), a fairly new method in the EUV lithography field, is an ideal method for characterization such new materials. For example, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) combined with standing-wave excitation can provide depth-selective information on the structural and chemical conditions of the photoresits as a function of temperature, exposure, or other parameters. We performed a SW-XPS feasibility study on self-assembled monolayer (SAM) films after exposure to electron beam. SW-XPS determined the semi-quantitative chemical profiles of the SAM layer with sub-nm accuracy including the roughness/interdiffusion of both interfaces. We demonstrated that SW-XPS can provide indispensable information useful for understanding the depth composition of films as well effects of irradiation (e-beam or EUV) on the latest ultrathin photoresists.
KEYWORDS: Self-assembled monolayers, Chemistry, Interfaces, Extreme ultraviolet, Electrons, Chemical reactions, Extreme ultraviolet lithography, Deep ultraviolet, New and emerging technologies, Lithography
In EUV lithography, radiation chemistry is largely different from DUV. Engineers have explored self-assembled monolayers (SAM) in the context of lithography and some of their properties could be utilized in EUV. We study SAMs and their interaction with substrates using quantum chemistry.
Interface chemistry between resists and underlayers is playing an increasingly important role in EUV. it is conceivable that the resist molecules near the interface are susceptible to activation by electrons originated in the substrate. For their monolayer nature and spontaneous ordering, SAMs can be used for engineering interface properties in a predictable manner.
Understanding the physical and chemical processes at the interface in the presence of SAMs would be vital for better modelling their effects on imaging.
To address these questions, quantum chemistry is used to understand the properties of SAMs, such as their packing order. The surface electronic structure is also studied to elucidate the physical properties at the interface that could impact EUV dose.
Area selective deposition (ASD) strategies are broadly enabling, where their application is anticipated to impact semiconductor scaling, in the short term, and broadly impact the design of non-traditional hardware such as phase change memory for specialized artificial intelligence (AI) hardware. In order to extend scaling, ASD may be required for the formation of self-aligned structures on patterned substrates that enable schemes, such as fully aligned via. The design of inhibiting materials including small molecule, polymer brushes and area selective surface polymerizations can be tailored to enable the selective deposition of a variety of metal oxide films (e.g., Al2O3, TiO2 or ZnO). The inhibiting materials examined systematically varied inhibitor spacing, composition and surface cleans prior to inhibitor deposition. The examination of a range of materials provides insight into the fundamental mechanisms of inhibition between precursor chemistries and their interaction with surfaces. Furthermore, while the materials generally exploited for inhibition are relegated to small molecules and may require multiple cycles of etch-back processes followed by renewal of the surface inhibitor polymeric materials may offer the potential to access ASD of films with devices that have significant surface topography where they act as effective inhibitors over small molecules. This was achieved with the area selective growth of polymers where the area selective control of a polymerization on a 100nm tall copper line space feature enabled the selective deposition on a silicon dielectric. In addition, while the ASD of some film compositions could not be achieved with polymer inhibitors the ALD on polymer regions of a patterned film increased the porosity of the metal oxide changing the film’s etch resistance, this could be exploited to achieve the area selective etch of metal features.
Lithography faces an increasing number of challenges as errors in pattern overlay and placement become increasingly significant as scaling continues. The flexibility of removing a lithography step offers a significant advantage in fabrication as it has the potential to mitigate these errors. Furthermore, this strategy also relaxes design rules in semiconductor fabrication enabling concepts like self-alignment. The use of selective area atomic layer deposition with self-assembled monolayers that incorporate different side group functionalities was evaluated in the deposition of a sacrificial etch mask. Monolayers with weak supramolecular interactions between components (e.g. Van der Waals) were found to exhibit significant defectivity when depositing this material at and below 100nm feature sizes. The incorporation stronger supramolecular interacting groups in the monolayer design, such as hydrogen bonding units or pi-pi interactions, did not produce an added benefit over the weaker interacting components. However, incorporation of reactive moieties in the monolayer component enabled the subsequent reaction of a SAM surface generating a polymer at the surface and providing a more effective barrier, greatly reducing the number and types of defects observed in the selectively deposited ALD film. These reactive monolayers enabled the selective deposition of a film with critical dimensions as low as 15nm. The deposited film was then used as an effective barrier for standard isotropic etch chemistries, allowing the selective removal of a metal without degradation to the surrounding surface. This work enables selective area ALD as a technology by (1) the development of a material that dramatically reduces defectivity and (2) the demonstrated use of the selectively deposited film as an etch mask and its subsequent removal under mild conditions.
At IBM, one of the focus items for EUV patterning development is to enable the fullest extent of scaling to a second EUV node while maintaining single-exposure levels. The challenge for the next node of EUV patterning has been with attaining acceptable defectivity levels that can enable electrical yield at pitches 32nm and below. For single-expose EUV, the primary detractors to sub-32nm pitch yield are typically microbridging and line break defects, which have different root causes but can exist in the same dose range. Since the etch strategies for mitigating one of these defect types will result in exacerbating the other, the burden to improve defectivity cannot be placed solely on the pattern transfer process. Resist scumming, which is the root cause of microbriging, can be modulated through interactions with the resist-hardmask interface. The lack of acid at the substrate interface causes resist scumming, and therefore increasing the acidity at the resist hardmask interface can be expected to mitigate post-litho microbridge defects. As the number of EUV photons are significantly less compared to DUV exposures due to the high energy contained in each photon, an extra acid boost can also help to address the stochastics failures that dominate EUV patterning. This paper will demonstrate the concept of modulating the resist-hardmask interaction through surface activation layers, and show the subsequent effects on patterning process window and microbridging defectivity toward yield at pitches <32nm.
Block-copolymers (BCPs) offer the potential to meet the demands of next generation lithographic materials as they can self-assemble into scalable and tailorable nanometer scale patterns. In order for these materials to find wide spread adoption many challenges remain, including reproducible thin film morphology, for which the purity of block copolymers is critical. One of the sources of impurities are reaction conditions used to synthesize block copolymers that may result in the formation of homopolymer as a side product, which can impact the quality and the morphology of self-assembled features. Detection and characterization of these homopolymer impurities can be challenging by traditional methods of polymer characterization. We will discuss an alternate NMR-based method for the detection of homopolymer impurities in block copolymers – contrast enhanced diffusion ordered spectroscopy (CEDOSY). This experimental technique measures the diffusion coefficient of polymeric materials in the solution allowing for the ‘virtual’ or spectroscopic separation of BCPs that contain homopolymer impurities. Furthermore, the contrast between the diffusion coefficient of mixtures containing BCPs and homopolymer impurities can be enhanced by taking advantage of the chemical mismatch of the two blocks to effectively increase the size of the BCP (and diffusion coefficient) through the formation of micelles using a cosolvent, while the size and diffusion coefficient of homopolymer impurities remain unchanged. This enables the spectroscopic separation of even small amounts of homopolymer impurities that are similar in size to BCPs. Herein, we present the results using the CEDOSY technique with both first generation BCP system, poly(styrene)-b-poly(methyl methacrylate), as well as a second generation high-χ system.
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