796904

Page 1

Invited Paper

EUV SECONDARY ELECTRON BLUR AT THE 22NM HALF PITCH NODE Roel Gronheid, IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium Todd R. Younkin, Michael J. Leeson, Intel Corporation, Components Research, RA3-252, 5200 NE Elam Young Parkway, Hillsboro, OR 97124, USA Carlos Fonseca, Joshua S. Hooge, Tokyo Electron America, Inc., 2400 Grove Boulevard, Austin, TX 78741, USA Kathleen Nafus, Tokyo Electron Kyushu Ltd., 1-1 Fukuhara, Koshi-shi, Kumamoto 861-1116, Japan John J. Biafore, Mark D. Smith, KLA-Tencor, PROLITH R&D, 8834 N. Capital of Texas Highway, Austin, TX 78759, USA ABSTRACT In this paper the Arrhenius behavior of blur upon EUV exposure is investigated through variation of the PEB temperature. In this way, thermally activated parameters that contribute to blur (such as acid/base diffusion) can be separated from non-thermally activated parameters (such as secondary electron blur). The experimental results are analyzed in detail using multi-wavelength resist modeling based on the continuum approach and through fitting of the EUV data using stochastic resist models. The extracted blur kinetics display perfectly linear Arrhenius behavior, indicating that there is no sign for secondary electron blur at 22nm half pitch. At the lowest PEB setting the total blur length is ~4nm, indicating that secondary electron blur should be well below that. The stochastic resist model gives a best fit to the current data set with parameters that result in a maximum probability of acid generation at 2.4nm from the photon absorption site. Extrapolation of the model predicts that towards the 16nm half pitch the impact on sizing dose is minimal and an acceptable exposure latitude is achievable. In order to limit the impact on line width roughness at these dimensions it will be required to control acid diffusion to ~5nm. Keywords: EUV, secondary electron blur, lithography simulation, resolution, LWR, resist sensitivity

1. INTRODUCTION Because of the excitation mechanism in EUV lithography the photo-acid is not expected to be generated at the exact location where the EUV photon is absorbed in resist. The magnitude of this so-called secondary electron blur has thus far proven to be very difficult to access experimentally. In previous work [1, 2] a methodology has been developed to build EUV resist models with a focus on extraction of meaningful physical parameters from them. The method relies on fitting across multiple imaging wavelengths and inducing constraints in the fit so that deprotection and dissolution kinetics are equivalent for the different imaging wavelengths. Only the acid generation kinetics are allowed to differ. This approach has allowed extracting relative quantum efficiencies of acid generation at the imaging wavelengths that were used. At 193nm and 248nm these were found to be identical, which is in agreement with expectations based on photo-physics [2]. However, at EUV the quantum efficiency of acid generation was found to be 8-13X higher. This high quantum efficiency is expected based on the EUV excitation mechanism [3] and demonstrates the intrinsic amplification of this technology. Similarly to the amplification mechanism in chemically amplified resists (CAR), the intrinsic amplification of the EUV excitation mechanism comes along with intrinsic blur. This so-called secondary electron blur (SEB) is a

Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Lithography II, edited by Bruno M. La Fontaine, Patrick P. Naulleau, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7969, 796904 路 漏 2011 SPIE 路 CCC code: 0277-786X/11/$18 路 doi: 10.1117/12.881427

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7969 796904-1 Downloaded from SPIE Digital Library on 04 Apr 2011 to 192.146.1.175. Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms


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