2007 Volume 20 Issue 6 Pages 777-780
It is entirely fair to say that the minute resist pattern should be deformed due to interaction force without any contact force, that is, non-contacting deformation (NCD). The NCD of a resist pattern can be analyzed based on the interaction investigation using atomic force microscope (AFM). An EB chemically amplified line resist patterns from 60 to 115 nm width and 210 nm height were used as the test patterns. In the force measurement, the AFM tip approaches to the top corner of line resist pattern, then, the AFM tip begins to bend toward the resist pattern due to the interaction force. We calculated the amount of NCD of the line resist pattern by 3D-finite element method (FEM). As decreasing the resist pattern width, the interaction force decreases but the NCD of resist pattern increases. The NCD less than 50nm design rule is also discussed quantitatively.
