Decarboxylation efficiency of carboxylic acids as ligands of metal oxide nanocluster resists upon γ-ray irradiation

Metal oxide nanocluster resists have recently attracted considerable attention for use in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. To obtain sophisticated guidelines for material design, it is necessary to understand well the radiation-induced chemical reaction scheme including the insolubilization mechanism. In this study, the production of CO2, which is considered to be one of the end products of treatment with an ionizing radiation, was investigated for eight types of carboxylic acid under various conditions using -rays (60Co) as a radiation source. The amount of CO2 produced was measured by gas chromatography (GC). GCO2 (/100 eV), which indicates decarboxylation efficiency, was evaluated. CO2 was generated through electron addition, hole transfer, and hydroxyl radical addition to the molecular and ionic forms of carboxylic acids. The dependences of GCO2 on reaction partners were clarified. The dependences of GCO2 on the molecular structure and dissociative state of carboxylic acids were also clarified.

High-NA EUV lithography: current status and outlook for the future

High-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is currently in development. Fabrication of exposure tools and optics with a numerical aperture (NA) equal to 0.55 has started at ASML and Carl Zeiss. Lenses with such high NA will have very small depths-of-focus, which will require improved focus systems and significant improvements in wafer flatness during processing. Lenses are anamorphic to address mask 3D issues, which results in wafer field sizes of 26 mm × 16.5 mm, half that of lower NA EUV tools and optical scanners. Production of large die will require stitching. Computational infrastructure is being created to support high-NA lithography, including simulators that use Tatian polynomials to characterize the aberrations of lenses with central obscurations. High resolution resists that meet the line-edge roughness (LER) and defect requirements for high-volume manufacturing (HVM) also need to be developed. High power light sources will also be needed to limit photon shot noise.

Formulation of trade-off relationships between resolution, line edge roughness, and sensitivity in sub-10 nm half-pitch region for chemically amplified extreme ultraviolet resists

The manufacturing of semiconductor devices using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography started in 2019. A high numerical aperture (NA) tool under development is capable of resolving 8 nm line-and-space optical images and will extend the application of EUV lithography. However, resist materials have not been yet applicable to the production with 8 nm resolution. In this study, the relationships among the half-pitch of line-and-space patterns (resolution), chemical gradient [an indicator of line edge roughness (LER)], and sensitivity were investigated in the sub-10 nm half-pitch region for chemically amplified EUV resists. The chemical gradient was simulated on the basis of their sensitization and reaction mechanisms. The relationship was formulated as a function of total sensitizer concentration (the sum of photoacid generator and photodecomposable quencher concentrations) and the thermalization distance of secondary electrons. The effect of thermalized electrons was well incorporated into the trade-off relationships between resolution, LER, and sensitivity.

A synchrotron-based kilowatt-level radiation source for EUV lithography

A compact damping ring with limited circumference of about 160 m is proposed for producing kilowatt-level coherent EUV radiation. The electron bunch in the ring is modulated by a 257nm wavelength laser with the help of the angular dispersion induced micro-bunching method [C. Feng and Z. Zhao, Sci. Rep. 7, 4724 (2017)]. Coherent radiation at 13.5 nm with an average power of about 2.5 kW can be achieved with the state-of-the-art accelerator and laser technologies.