193-nm resist shrinkage carryover effect to a post-etch layer due to CD-SEM measurement

Gary X. Cao; Nancy J Wheeler; Alan S. Wong

doi:10.1117/12.533881

24 May 2004 193-nm resist shrinkage carryover effect to a post-etch layer due to CD-SEM measurement

Gary X. Cao, Nancy J Wheeler, Alan S. Wong

Proceedings Volume 5375, Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XVIII; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.533881
Event: Microlithography 2004, 2004, Santa Clara, California, United States

Abstract

193 nm resist shrinkage due to critical dimension scanning electron microscope (CD-SEM) measurements is a well-known but unresolved metrology issue in microlithography. Although there have been numerous studies on this subject, there are few publications on the 193 nm resist shrinkage finger-print carried over to etched features, i.e., the CD shrinkage carryover effect. This paper reports the results of our CD-SEM measurement study. We observed that the CD changes due to measurement were still present after etch and were often greater than 15% of the feature size. The shrinkage result implies that the action of CD-SEM measurement is destructive to the patterned circuitry. An improved CD-SEM measurement methodology is required to reduce circuitry damage. The study also revealed that minimal shrinkage carryover (less than 1%) could be obtained when the CD-SEM measurement condition was optimized. These results also indicate that measurement of CD shrinkage on post-etch patterns can offer a very effective method to characterize pre-etch resist shrinkage.

Citation Download Citation

Gary X. Cao, Nancy J Wheeler, and Alan S. Wong "193-nm resist shrinkage carryover effect to a post-etch layer due to CD-SEM measurement", Proc. SPIE 5375, Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XVIII, (24 May 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.533881

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