Binary halftone chromeless PSM technology for quarter-lambda optical lithography

J. Fung Chen; John S. Petersen; Robert John Socha; Thomas L. Laidig; Kurt E. Wampler; Kent H. Nakagawa; Greg P. Hughes; Susan S. MacDonald; Waiman Ng

doi:10.1117/12.435751

14 September 2001 Binary halftone chromeless PSM technology for λ/4;optical lithography

J. Fung Chen, John S. Petersen, Robert John Socha, Thomas L. Laidig, Kurt E. Wampler, Kent H. Nakagawa, Greg P. Hughes, Susan S. MacDonald, Waiman Ng

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4346, Optical Microlithography XIV; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.435751
Event: 26th Annual International Symposium on Microlithography, 2001, Santa Clara, CA, United States

Abstract

Binary halftone chromeless PSM (CLM) can be described as a 100% transmission attenuated PSM (attPSM). The term 'binary halftone' refers to a novel OPC application to achieve the necessary CD control across the full feature-pitch range. We find that CLM is very complimentary -- with high numerical aperture (NA) and with off-axis illumination (OAI). In our wafer-printing experiment, we have achieved 70 nm through- pitch printing performance, using a KrF resist process. This was done in combination with a rule-based SB-OPC approach. At least 0.4 micrometer overlapped DOF with more than 6% exposure latitude has been attained for sub-100 nm printed features. For 2D complex patterns, we have observed a very strong optical proximity effect. CLM appears to be more sensitive to proximity effects, but less sensitive to lens aberration effects. Further experimentation and verification is required. Current mask-making processes appear to be capable of manufacturing CLM. We conclude that CLM has great potential to achieving production-worthy (lambda) /4 (or 0.2k₁) lithography. The technology risk is neither in mask making nor in application software, but may be in reticle inspection and repair.

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J. Fung Chen, John S. Petersen, Robert John Socha, Thomas L. Laidig, Kurt E. Wampler, Kent H. Nakagawa, Greg P. Hughes, Susan S. MacDonald, and Waiman Ng "Binary halftone chromeless PSM technology for λ/4;optical lithography", Proc. SPIE 4346, Optical Microlithography XIV, (14 September 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.435751

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