Novel Rinse Liquid for sub-90 nm Lithography

Abstract

We investigate the effect of surfactant and solvent in rinse liquid using ArF photoresist. The collapse behavior is quantified in terms of the first collapsed critical dimension (FCCD) in 90 nm L/S ArF resist patterns. The addition of small amount of isopropanol in rinse liquid is not helpful to suppress surface tension (ST). In-house rinse liquids (HR series) showed relatively lower ST (26 mN/m2) compared to commercial one (45 mN/m2) at 23°C. They greatly reduce pattern collapse behavior (PCB) of photoresist from FCCD 103 nm to 85 nm L/S using these solutions. However, some rinse showes defect by bubble and the others show bad compatibility with photoresist. Some of HR series satisfy all requirements.