NIL defect performance toward high volume mass production

Masayuki Hatano; Kei Kobayashi; Hiroyuki Kashiwagi; Hiroshi Tokue; Takuya Kono; Nakasugi Tetsuro; Eun Hyuk Choi; Wooyung Jung

doi:10.1117/12.2218972

22 March 2016 NIL defect performance toward high volume mass production

Masayuki Hatano, Kei Kobayashi, Hiroyuki Kashiwagi, Hiroshi Tokue, Takuya Kono, Nakasugi Tetsuro, Eun Hyuk Choi, Wooyung Jung

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9777, Alternative Lithographic Technologies VIII; 97770B (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2218972
Event: SPIE Advanced Lithography, 2016, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

A low cost alternative lithographic technology is desired to meet with the decreasing feature size of semiconductor devices. Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is one of the candidates for alternative lithographic technologies. NIL has advantages such as good resolution, critical dimension (CD) uniformity and smaller line edge roughness (LER). 4 On the other hand, NIL involves some risks. Defectivity is the most critical issue in NIL. The progress in the defect reduction on templates shows great improvement recently. In other words, the defect reduction of the NIIL process is a key to apply NIL to mass production. In this paper, we describe the evaluation results of the defect performance of NIL using an up-to-date tool, Canon FPA-1100 NZ2, and discuss the future potential of NIL in terms of defectivity. The impact of various kinds defects, such as the non-filling defect, plug defect, line collapse, and defects on replica templates are discussed. We found that non-fill defects under the resist pattern cause line collapse. It is important to prevent line collapse. From these analyses based on actual NIL defect data on long-run stability, we will show the way to reduce defects and the possibility of NIL in device high volume mass production. For the past one year, we have been are collaborating with SK Hynix to bring this promising technology into mainstream manufacturing. This work is the result of this collaboration.

Citation Download Citation

Masayuki Hatano, Kei Kobayashi, Hiroyuki Kashiwagi, Hiroshi Tokue, Takuya Kono, Nakasugi Tetsuro, Eun Hyuk Choi, and Wooyung Jung "NIL defect performance toward high volume mass production", Proc. SPIE 9777, Alternative Lithographic Technologies VIII, 97770B (22 March 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2218972

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