Immersion lithography scanner resolution performance demonstration on 450mm substrates

The Global 450mm Consortium (G450C) has completed its 5th year of developing and evaluating manufacturing 450mm tool sets. This paper focuses on how the lithography cell resolution performance has progressed from tool acceptance to current day. Initial data will be shown as well as the iterative and final data following process and equipment improvements that have been implemented over the course of the G450C program. This paper will demonstrate both line/space and contact hole Critical Dimension Uniformity (CDU), one of the key indicators of resolution performance, as well as process window performance on multiple masks and resist processes. The CDU performance shows significant improvement after three main factors were implemented: custom-made photoresist, track process optimization, and Nikon Turnkey CDU Master software application. It will be demonstrated that with the implementation of optimized photoresist, Post Exposure bake (PEB) tuning and CDU Master correction that CDU results of Besides a traditional 6% Attenuated Phase Shifting Mask (APSM), G450C litho also utilizes thin Opaque MoSi On Glass Mask (OMOG). Process window comparisons will be evaluated on both mask technologies for all of the resist processes. In addition to the test masks, G450C completed the design of a three layer mask set with resist based Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) modeling and gathered “on product” CDU performance on a Back End Of Line (BEOL) metal stack.