Characterizing Polymer bound PAG Type EUV Resist

Abstract

Blurs, swelling properties and lithographic performance for polymer bound PAG and polymer PAG blended type resists were studied. A Blur strongly depends on PAG size and the polymer bound PAG type resist reduces the Blur. The Blur for the polymer bound PAG type resist is smaller than that for ZEP (non CAR). The fact indicates that polymer bound PAG should reduce secondary electron diffusion. The polymer bound PAG type resist acquires very small Blur with higher sensitivity and suppresses swelling very well, therefore polymer bound PAG is one of the promising technologies that improve resolution, LWR and sensitivity (RLS) property. RLS property on EUV exposure tool is significantly improved by using the polymer bound PAG type resist. Resolution reaches 24 nmhp and is limited by pattern collapse and line breaking. Further lithographic experiments on EB exposure tool which has higher NILS than EUV exposure tool are carried out in order to make clear relation between Blur and resolution. The resolution of the polymer bound PAG type resist reaches 17.5 nmhp with 35 nm thickness and there is possibility that the resolution of an optimized polymer bound PAG type resist reaches under 15 nmhp. The resolution of the resist with lower capillary force (C.F.) given and lower swelling and on higher NILS exposure tool strongly depends on the Blur.