Requirement for Suppression of Line Width Roughness in Fabrication of Line-and-Space Patterns with 7 nm Quarter-Pitch Using Electron Beam Lithography with Chemically Amplified Resist Process

Abstract

The suppression of line width roughness (LWR) is the most difficult task in the development of resist materials used for sub-10 nm fabrication. We have investigated the feasibility of the fabrication of line-and-space patterns with 7 nm quarter-pitch (7 nm space width and 28 nm pitch) with a chemically amplified resist process, assuming electron beam (EB) lithography. In this study, we investigated the requirement for suppressing LWR to 10 and 20% critical dimension (CD), using the simulation on the basis of the reaction mechanisms of chemically amplified EB resists. The simulation results suggested that the suppression of LWR to 20% CD is feasible, while 10% CD LWR is away from the current status of chemically amplified resists.