Immersion lithography robustness for the C065 node

Abstract

Semiconductor manufacturers are in the midst of the next technology node C045 (65nm half-pitch) development. The difference this time is that the heavy lifting is being done while swimming. Generally, for the C065 node (hp90), critical layers will be processed using 193-nm scanners with numerical apertures up to 0.85. It is also clear that the capabilities and potential benefits of lithography (at this wavelength and NA) should to be examined, in addition to the development of lithography for the C045 and C032 technology generations. The potential benefits of lithography; increased DOF in the near term and hyper-NA imaging in the next phase, have been widely reported. A strategy of replacing conventional lithographic steps with lithographic steps would allow the benefits of to be realized much earlier. To fully realize this advantage a direct comparison of lithography's benefits and therefore speed learning is needed. However, such an insertion should be transparent: i.e. the immersion process should run with the same reticles (OPC) and resists, as the conventional process. In an effort to gain this knowledge about the processes, we have chosen a path of optimizing and ramping-up the lithographic for the C065 technology node. In this paper, we report on the compatibility of inserting lithography processes into an established C065 running in a pilot manufacturing line. We will present an initial assessment of some critical parameters for the implementation of lithography. This assessment includes: OPC compatibility, imaging, integration, and defectivity all compared to the dry of record. Finally, conclusions will be made as to the overall readiness of to support C065 node processing in direct transfer from dry and its extendibility to C045. In this work, the C045 technology node (hp65) is the main target vehicle. However, a successful introduction of technology may allow a strategy change complementary with the previous (C065) technology node (i.e. run C065 in production and benefit from larger windows).