Measurement and evaluation of water uptake by resists, top coats, stacks, and correlation with watermark defects

Philippe Foubert; Michael Kocsis; Roel Gronheid; Shinji Kishimura; Akimasa Soyano; Kathleen Nafus; Nickolay Stepanenko; Johan De Backer; Nadia Vandenbroeck; Monique Ercken

doi:10.1117/12.713150

4 April 2007 Measurement and evaluation of water uptake by resists, top coats, stacks, and correlation with watermark defects

Philippe Foubert, Michael Kocsis, Roel Gronheid, Shinji Kishimura, Akimasa Soyano, Kathleen Nafus, Nickolay Stepanenko, Johan De Backer, Nadia Vandenbroeck, Monique Ercken

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6519, Advances in Resist Materials and Processing Technology XXIV; 65190E (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.713150
Event: SPIE Advanced Lithography, 2007, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

With immersion lithography approaching the insertion in production, watermarks remain as one of the main concerns for immersion specific defects. They require special attention because of their size and associated high kill-ratio, and their increasing occurrence at higher scan speeds. IMEC has been working to understand the underlying mechanism of why remaining water droplets cause these defects. This work focuses on water uptake measurements and how this parameter correlates to watermark defectivity. Ellipsometric Porosimetry (EP) is used to measure the water uptake tendencies of resist and top coat materials and stacks thereof, and investigate what parameters are affecting it. The influence of material and process parameters and the presence of a top coat on water uptake by the resist are evaluated. In parallel, the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) technique has been used as an alternative option to measure the water uptake. Though a one-to-one comparison between the results is not straightforward, the main trends are identical for both techniques. No perfect correlation of watermark defectivity with water uptake has been found in this study. Nevertheless, the results show a tendency towards higher watermark sensitivity with higher water uptake by the film. It is recognized that the total watermark defectivity is most probably a complex interplay of different parameters with water uptake being only one of them.

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Philippe Foubert, Michael Kocsis, Roel Gronheid, Shinji Kishimura, Akimasa Soyano, Kathleen Nafus, Nickolay Stepanenko, Johan De Backer, Nadia Vandenbroeck, and Monique Ercken "Measurement and evaluation of water uptake by resists, top coats, stacks, and correlation with watermark defects", Proc. SPIE 6519, Advances in Resist Materials and Processing Technology XXIV, 65190E (4 April 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.713150

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