Pattern formation in a chemically amplified photoresist requires a post-exposure bake (PEB) to catalytically deprotect the polymer. Excessive diffusion of the photogenerated acid results in the loss of line edge definition, blurring of latent images, and changes in the line edge roughness. To optimize the process, the authors have explored submillisecond PEB using a laser-based scanned annealing system [M. Chandhok (private communication)]. Several polymer and photoacid generator resist systems were studied under laser spike annealing at estimated temperatures between 200 and . All the resist systems exhibit remarkable stability in this time/temperature regime, with the maximum useful temperature limited by thermal deprotection and/or decomposition of the polymer backbone. At lower temperatures, high resolution patterns with sub- features are formed, comparable to hotplate reference samples. Resist sensitivity is improved significantly for several resist systems (dose to clear is lowered), while other systems exhibit little change in photosensitivity.
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November 2009
This content was originally published in
Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena
Research Article|
December 04 2009
Submillisecond post-exposure bake of chemically amplified resists by laser spike annealing
Jing Sha;
Jing Sha
Department of Materials Science,
Cornell University
, Ithaca, New York 14853
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Byungki Jung;
Byungki Jung
Department of Materials Science,
Cornell University
, Ithaca, New York 14853
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Michael O. Thompson;
Michael O. Thompson
Department of Materials Science,
Cornell University
, Ithaca, New York 14853
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Christopher K. Ober;
Christopher K. Ober
a)
Department of Materials Science,
Cornell University
, Ithaca, New York 14853
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Manish Chandhok;
Manish Chandhok
b)
Intel Corporation
, Hillsboro, Oregon 97124
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Todd R. Younkin
Todd R. Younkin
Intel Corporation
, Hillsboro, Oregon 97124
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a)
Electronic mail: cko3@cornell.edu
b)
Electronic mail: manish.chandhok@intel.com
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 27, 3020–3024 (2009)
Article history
Received:
July 30 2009
Accepted:
October 19 2009
Citation
Jing Sha, Byungki Jung, Michael O. Thompson, Christopher K. Ober, Manish Chandhok, Todd R. Younkin; Submillisecond post-exposure bake of chemically amplified resists by laser spike annealing. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 1 November 2009; 27 (6): 3020–3024. https://doi.org/10.1116/1.3263173
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