Abstract
EUV photoresists are considered as a potential source of optics contamination, since they introduce irradiation induced outgassing in the EUV vacuum environment. Therefore before they can be used on the ASML NXE:3100 EUV scanner, the resists need to be tested in dedicated equipment and according to ASML NXE outgas specifications. In line with these guidelines, Imec has been working on the infrastructure set-up to enable the resist outgassing qualification. This infrastructure is based on outgas tool tester which previously has been used for qualifying resists for the ASML ADT, and which has capabilities to do witness sample testing and RGA. In this paper, we first describe the implementation of the ASML NXE outgas specifications towards the Imec tool infrastructure, and the results obtained on contamination growth of resist related outgassing. In addition the procedure was used to investigate how the change process conditions can impact the contamination qualification result. Finally, preliminary tests were done to compare the qualification results when the photoresist irradiation was changed from EUV exposure to E-gun exposure, which was considered as a more cost-effective solution to use.
