Feasibility study of sub-10-nm half-pitch fabrication by chemically amplified resist processes of extreme ultraviolet lithography: I. Latent image quality predicted by probability density model

Abstract

With the progress of lithography technology, the high-volume production of semiconductor devices with sub-10-nm resolution has garnered the attention of the semiconductor industry. In this study, the extendibility of chemically amplified resist processes to the sub-10-nm half-pitch node was investigated, assuming the use of extreme ultraviolet lithography. The latent images were calculated on the basis of the performance of the latest chemically amplified resists. With the reduction in half-pitch, the line edge roughness (LER) rapidly increased in the sub-10-nm range when the performance of the current EUV resists was assumed. Although the sub-10-nm fabrication is considered to be feasible, a significant increase in the acid generation concentration and the development of related material technologies are required.