Gate etch process control

Abstract

Studies on photomask Cr and MoSi etch processes were carried out and etch kinetics and modeling were performed. The photomasks were etched using an AMAT Centura II DPS and compared with a Unaxis VLE 770 ICP etcher. Mask metrology to support theoretical suppositions was performed on several tools: a KLA-Tencor P-12 profiler was used for depth measurement, while the KLA-Tencor 8250XP-R SEM was used for CD metrology and process characterization. The Toshiba EBM3500 50KeV writing system on positive chemically amplified resist was used for pattern creation. Cr and MoSi loading - etch rate equations were theoretically proposed and experimentally tested. It was found that the calculated Cr and MoSi etch rates agreed well with the experimental results. The equations can be used for etch time calculations and endpoint determinations of extremely low Cr load photomasks. Cr and MoSi local etch rates versus local loading on one photomask were studied and kinetic equations were proposed, showing good agreement with experimental results. Cr and MoSi etch CD movements versus local load on one photomask were also investigated. It was found that load effects on Cr and MoSi etch CD movements could be controlled in opposite directions and then a compensation consideration was proposed in MoSi optimization instead of using a point-to-point 3σ as the optimization parameter. By using this compensation method, the final MoSi CD unformity of 100-110 nm technology node photomasks is in the range of 8.5 to 10.1 nm. This final CD uniformity is similar to those etched using VLR 770 ICP etcher.