Demonstration of pattern transfer into sub-100 nm polysilicon line/space features patterned with extreme ultraviolet lithography

Abstract

In two separate experiments, we have successfully demonstrated the transfer of dense- and loose-pitch line/space (L/S) photoresist features, patterned with extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, into an underlying hard mask material. In both experiments, a deep-UV photoresist (∼90 nm thick) was spin cast in bilayer format onto a hard mask (50–90 nm thick) and was subsequently exposed to EUV radiation using a 10× reduction EUV exposure system. The EUV reticle was fabricated at Motorola (Tempe, AZ) using a subtractive process with Ta-based absorbers on Mo/Si multilayer mask blanks. In the first set of experiments, following the EUV exposures, the L/S patterns were transferred first into a SiO2 hard mask (60 nm thick) using a reactive ion etch (RIE), and then into polysilicon (350 nm thick) using a triode-coupled plasma RIE etcher at the University of California, Berkeley, microfabrication facilities. The latter etch process, which produced steep (>85°) sidewalls, employed a HBr/Cl chemistry with a large (>10:1) etch selectivity of polysilicon to silicon dioxide. In the second set of experiments, hard mask films of SiON (50 nm thick) and SiO2 (87 nm thick) were used. A RIE was performed at Motorola using a halogen gas chemistry that resulted in a hard mask-to-photoresist etch selectivity >3:1 and sidewall profile angles ⩾85°. Line edge roughness (LER) and linewidth critical dimension (CD) measurements were performed using Sandia’s GORA© CD digital image analysis software. Low LER values (6–9 nm, 3σ, one side) and good CD linearity (better than 10%) were demonstrated for the final pattern-transferred dense polysilicon L/S features from 80 to 175 nm. In addition, pattern transfer (into polysilicon) of loose-pitch (1:2) L/S features with CDs⩾60 nm was demonstrated.