Pattern transfer processes for 157-nm lithography

Abstract

We describe and evaluate three kinds of pattern transfer processes that are suitable for 157-nm lithography. These transfer processes are 1) a hard mask (HM) process using SiO as a HM material, 2) a HM process using an organic bottom anti-reflecting coating (BARC)/SiN structure, and 3) a bi- layer process using a silicon-containing resist and an organic film as the bottom layer. In all of these processes, the underlayer fo the resist acts as an anti-reflecting layer. For the HM processes, we patterned a newly developed fluorine-containing resist using a 157-nm microstepper, and transferred the resist patterns to the hard mask by reactive ion etching (RIE) with minimal critical dimension shift. Using the HM pattern, we then fabricated a 65nm Wsi/poly-Si gate pattern using a high-NA microstepper (NA=0.85). With the bi-layer process, we transferred a 60nm 1:1 lines and spaces pattern of a newly developed silicon-containing resist to a 300nm-thick organic film by RIE. The fabrication of a 65nm 1:1 gate pattern and 60nm 1:1 organic film patten clearly demonstrated that 157-nm lithography is the best candidate for fabricating sub-70nm node devices.