Lithographic Performances of Non-Chemically Amplified Resist and Chemically Amplified Resist for 193nm Top Surface Imaging Process.

Abstract

Application of atop-surface imaging(TSI) process by silylation to ArF lithography is desirable for ULSI production with minimum feature size for sub-120nm. We evaluated lithographic performances of non-chemically amplified positive TSI photoresist and chemically amplified negative TSI photoresist, both based on phenolic polymer. When off-axis illumination was used, 120nm and 110nm L/S patterns were obtained with non-chemically amplified resist(non-CAR) and chemically amplified resist(CAR) respectively. 100nm L/S patterns of CAR were obtained with strong off-axis illumination using binary intensity mask. CAR was superior to non-CAR in terms of lithographic performances, but inferior to non-CAR in terms of resist pattern collapse. Line edge roughness(LER) of CAR was sufficiently minimized by optimizing silylation bake temperature and it was comparable to that of single layer resist. For the prevention of resist pattern collapse in dry development process, the property of adhesion and resist rigidity is impor ant. This results can help the design of matrix resin of TSI resist for sub-100nm lithography.