EUV resist sensitization and roughness improvement by PSCAR with in-line flood exposure system (Conference Presentation)

Photosensitized Chemically Amplified ResistTM (PSCARTM) **2.0’s advantages and expectations are reviewed in this paper. Alpha PSCAR in-line UV exposure system (“Litho Enhancer”) was newly installed at imec in a Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TELTM)’s CLEAN TRACKTM LITHIUS ProTM Z connected to an ASML’s NXE:3300. Using the Litho Enhancer, PSCAR 2.0 sensitization preliminary results show that suppression of roughness enhancement may occur while sensitivity is increased. The calibrated PSCAR 2.0 simulator is used for prediction of resist formulation and process optimization. The simulation predicts that resist contrast enhancement could be realized by resist formulation and process optimization with UV flood exposure.